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Posts Tagged ‘spring

Mar

Reversing the Poles

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: blessings, brothers, cancer, celebration, gratitude, Jesus Christ, John 16:33, new life, snow, spring

I don’t know what your calendar says today, but the heading on my March 22, 2023 box reads: A DAY OF CELEBRATION AND GRATITUDE.

Of course, I am celebrating the first day of spring. Yes, I realize I am a couple of days late with this celebration. I also realize – as I look out my office window here in Fort Collins, Colorado – that it is currently snowing FIERCELY here where I live! But what the heck! It’s still SPRING!

Punxatawney Phil, your six weeks are UP, dude!

I am also celebrating the birthdays of my two youngest brothers, Alan and Eric. Actually, Eric’s birthday was Sunday, and Alan’s was Monday. But once again, let’s not stand on ceremony here. And in case you are curious, they are not twins that popped out on either side of midnight. They were born one year and one day apart.

Happy birthday to the “little boys,” as we once affectionately called them. I love and celebrate you both.

But most of all, I am celebrating the fourth anniversary of Joan finishing her surgery and chemotherapy and being officially declared cancer-free. That anniversary was on Saturday, but again… don’t be such a stickler for details, OK?

This particular anniversary is chock full of all kinds of sub-celebrations and occasions of gratitude. And with your permission I would like to name just a few of those…

First, I am deeply grateful that we stood – in 2019 – as the inheritors of decades and decades of medical research that all conspired to enhance cancer detection and treatment techniques. Had this diagnosis happened even 10 years ago, I am not sure our outcome would have been nearly as positive.

I am grateful that Joan did not waste a moment in getting in to see her PCP when early symptoms began appearing. So often we want to shrug it off and ignore things that might be warning signs of a more serious condition… until it really IS a more serious condition.
I am grateful that when this diagnosis first happened, we had immediate access to one of the finest GYN/ONC minds in the Kansas City area, if not in the whole country.

I am so very, very grateful for the generous outpouring of love and support we received from friends, family members, church members, and total strangers once we went public with this heart-rending news. Please do not EVER have the slightest doubt about whether your prayers, phone calls, cards, or conversations make a difference at times like this. They absolutely DO! Thank you for every one of them.

I am also grateful to my parents and those other “faith-forming” influencers in my life who long ago taught me that there are genuine and powerful resources that live out somewhere beyond the realm of the senses… and that I could count on those resources for help anytime things get dark. To be completely honest with you, I am still not sure I understand how or why any of that works.

I just know that it does.

And finally, am extremely grateful to Joan herself. I’m grateful that she kept patiently pulling me along on her cancer journey. Helping me understand what she needed… what kind of spousal interaction was helpful and what kind was just a bit irritating. She never lost patience with me whenever I became a little clueless, or overwhelmed, or self-absorbed during our travels over this unfamiliar terrain.

Today I also realize that there was a time in my life when beholding the reality of snow on March 22 or hearing about the diagnosis of cancer in a person I dearly love would have plunged me into a state of anger and despair. It was a time when, for me, circumstances meant everything and outlook was some kind of ephemeral, whispy bit of smoke.

But today I am most grateful to the spiritual guides in my life who taught me to reverse those two polarities, understanding the truth of Jesus’ words on the last day of his life when he told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, NRSVU).

Blessed are you, too, when you take this guidance to heart and learn to live by it.

Hopefully it won’t take you 60+ years.

Abundant blessings;

Jan

Soul Winter

By revruss1220 1 Comment

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: blessing, certainty, confidence, death, Easter, experience, faith, God, hope, Jesus Christ, life, new life, promise, rebirth, resurrection, spring, winter

Dead leaves 2 Yep.

Just poked my head out the window and confirmed something I’ve suspected for about a month now.

IT’S WINTER! (Unless, of course, you happen to live in the southern hemisphere).

And by the looks of things, it plans to continue being winter for quite a bit longer.

And so far here in my part of the country, it’s not that cute, cuddly, Currier-and-Ives kind of winter that looks like a beautiful snow globe someone has shaken up.

No. It is more that kind of slice-through-your-bones, punch-you-in-the-face, steal-all-your-joy-and-your-peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich-too kind of winter.

Winter is that time of year when you would swear that a massive crop-dusting plane flew over the whole country and dumped a load of DDT on everything.

In the winter, all plant life is dead. And brown. And gross. Take a look at these… I shot these pictures in our neighborhood while I was out walking the dog this morning. Note the remarkable lack of life in evidence here. Dead leaves 1

As winter trudges slowly by, it is sometimes tempting to look around at the deadness of the world and conclude that this condition will never, ever end. I have to admit… from the vantage point of January 21, 2020, warm weather and green grass seem like an impossible pipe dream somewhere out there on the eternal horizon.

Experience, however, tells us a different story. Experience keeps us from looking at the dead leaves and plunging into deep despair. Today we look at all this brown grass and detritus around but we don’t abandon hope. Even though our spirits might flag at this depressing sight, we grab ourselves by the lapels (or collar. Or bootstraps) and remind ourselves that this dreary, weary season will surely pass.

We have seen it happen before. And because we have seen it before, we are confident we will see it again.

This confidence goes by another name. It is also called FAITH.

In the case of the seasons, our faith has its roots firmly in our experience.

But what happens if we don’t have an experience like the certainty of spring to base our hope on? What if we look around and see gloom and doom and have strong reasons to wonder if things will EVER be different?

That is precisely when a different kind of faith is called for. That is when we each need to reach a little deeper into our knapsack and search around a bit.

As a Christ-follower, I have the story of Easter to latch onto… the story that provides a graphic illustration of the truth that says, “Even when things look their bleakest, there is still hope. With God, the worst thing is never the last thing.”

As one who strives (and struggles) to live by his guidance, I can also consider myself an inheritor of the promise that Jesus gave the members of his inner circle on the night he was arrested. He told them, “In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!” (John 16:33, NRSV).

In the valleys we each face from time to time, we may lack the kind of hopeful certainty that we get when we watch winter inevitably give way to spring. But God is here to remind us that God’s promise of new life on the other side of something that looks like death is just as sure… just as reliable… just as much of a “lock” as the green crocus buds that will be showing up here in a couple of months.

If you, or someone you know, are struggling with your own version of a “winter of the soul,” take heart…

God’s spring is just around the corner.

Oct

This Old Table

By revruss1220 Leave a Comment

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: attachment, beginnings, chairs, death, endings, enduring, faith, fall, foundation, God, Jesus Christ, life, Matthew 7:24, memories, seasons, short, solid, spring, summer, sweet, table

And so it begins.

Earlier today Joan and I bid a fond farewell to the lovely distressed barnwood table (and six matching chairs) as it was toted out of our breakfast room.

So many meals around that table.

So many great conversations.

So many important and memorable family moments.

So many glasses of wine. (SO many…)

This was the table where my youngest brother Eric was sitting when he rolled a Yahtzee of sixes ON THE FIRST ROLL at our 2012 family Thanksgiving gathering.

This is the table where my sister sat in her pjs, reading Rolling Stone magazine, as sunlight streamed in through the windows and the fall foliage formed a colorful backdrop.

Grandkids graduated to this table when they finally demonstrated that their table manners have matured sufficiently.

But alas… try as we might, Joan and I could not discern a place this table would fit in the new, smaller house into which we will soon move.

And so off it goes… ready to help another family make new memories. Here is what we are now left with… for meals and sessions of blog post writing: Tiny table

Later today that trusty table will be followed out the door by a chest of drawers, an armoire, a bedside table, and a lovely headboard… each one dripping with cherished memories.

In case I haven’t mentioned it yet, we are in the process of moving. We have sold our home in Overland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City), and will be moving the middle of next month to Fort Collins, Colorado.

It is a move partially of choice and partially of necessity. There are family members in Colorado as well as the beauty and splendor of the Rocky Mountains… not to mention several excellent micro-breweries and a thriving cultural scene.

It is a move Joan and I are both looking forward to as the beginning of a new adventure.

But like the beginning of any new adventure, it will also involve an abundance of amputations.

We will sever our relationships with a lot of our stuff… like that amazing table.

As we move, we will be chopping off connections with barber, hairdresser, doctors, neighborhood handyman, familiar surroundings, this set of friends and neighbors, our church, our Overland Park and Kansas City traditions, this house, and a hundred other things that have helped define our lives in this place.

We fully anticipate those will each be replaced by a Fort Collins-shaped equivalent over the course of the next few months.

But for now, all I can see is the wispy trail of fond memories hanging in the air as pieces of our home begin departing.

The inescapable, enduring truth about life is that things end. And in their ending, they make room for something else to begin. The warm frolic of summer ends, making room for the cozy cuddling of winter. The effusive energy of youth ends and makes room for the patient wisdom of age.

It is necessary – for a time – to mourn life’s endings. But we should take care not to get stuck there. We don’t want to miss the new adventure waiting to unfold.

At times like this, it is good to be reminded that this life consists of things that endure and things that don’t. And according to our Teacher, true wisdom consists in building our lives on the kind of material that endures, instead of on the other kind:

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”(Matthew 7:24-26, NRSV).

Mar

Viriditas

By revruss1220 7 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: born again, green, growth, inner, Jesus Christ, new life, Nicodemus, spring, transformation

Tulips in spring It’s happening.

Can you feel it?

If you stand REEEEEEALLLY still and cock your head a little to the left you can almost hear the new blades of grass shoving against the soil.

In a few places around my yard, a foolhardy daffodil or two has even broached the surface, looked around and hollered, “HEY! Where is everybody?? It’s springtime, Y’all!! Let’s get this party STARTED!!”

Right here where we sit on the calendar… right after the arrival of Daylight Saving Time… is positively pregnant with promise.

It’s a time of becoming.

It’s a time of eager anticipation.

It’s a time that teases us with visions of endless possibility.

It is also a time when I inevitably miss the message God has hidden inside the buds of the lilac bush.

I glance around my yard and my neighborhood, noting the dynamic costume change going on and mistakenly believe THAT is the main attraction.

You’ve seen it too; trees start pulling on their pale green sweaters … flowerbeds begin spreading their multi-hued quilts… dead, brown straw wakes up and breaks out the vibrant spring wardrobe.

I take it all in and say to myself, “THAT’S what I need! I need to SPIFF IT UP a bit! I need to break out some new threads! I need to do the same kind of extreme make-over I see happening all around me in the natural world. That is what will breathe new life into my weary soul!”

And so that’s what I do.

I start a new project.

I plan a new adventure.

I buy a new pair of shoes.

And in the process, I totally miss the real message hidden in the buds of spring.

As it turns out, the Christian mystic, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), observed the coming of spring nearly a millennium ago and accurately captured its true meaning.

Fr. Richard Rohr, in his daily meditation, quoted Hildegard and observed, “[She] often used the word viriditas, the greening of things from within…. She recognized a readiness in plants to receive the sun and to transform it into energy and life. She also saw an inherent connection between the physical world and the divine Presence. This connection translates into energy that is the soul and seed of everything, an inner voice calling you to ‘Become who you are; become all that you are.’”

When the Pharisee Nicodemus came to Jesus seeking answers to life’s persistent mysteries, Jesus told him rather directly to attain the new life he was seeking meant that he would have to be, “… born of water and spirit.” (John 3:5).

In other words, Nicodemus needed to “green from within.”

There is no doubt that the time of greening up and sprucing up is upon us. Heck, it might even be time for a new tie, pair of shoes or dress… whichever suits you best.

But as we take one more admiring glance in the mirror, let’s try to remember that the real transformation needs to start from WITHIN.

Abundant blessings…

Feb

Spring, Soil, and Seeds

By revruss1220 2 Comments

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: cleaning, fast, heart, Jesus Christ, Lent, prayer, prepare, reflect, seeds, soil, spring

seed2tree2 I’m getting the bug.

The spring-cleaning bug, that is.

Partly because there are several places in my home that are really messy and cluttered and in great need of cleaning. [Looking at you, garage!]

But my hygiene zeal also comes from the fact that if I am doing spring-cleaning, it means it is SPRING! And after a winter like this one, spring can’t get here quickly enough.

But this time, when the dust starts flying, I am going to do things a little differently, I’ve decided.

I am going to sweep up all the dust and gather all of the unused, outdated, broken, surplus, and superfluous contents of my house into one place.

Then I am going to get them all out of here… far from my sight.

And exactly 40 days later, I am going to bring them all back in and put them right back where I found them.

“Excuse me?” you say. “You’re going to do WHAT???”

I know. Sounds weird, doesn’t it.

But doesn’t this approach to spring cleaning bear some resemblance to the way Christians approach the season of Lent?

To wit: in the true Lenten spirit of self-examination and repentance, a devout Christian begins this sacred season by identifying something in his or her life that is “out of whack”… or in need of cleaning, if you will.

Maybe that thing is over-eating. Maybe it’s gossiping. Perhaps it is excessive use of social media, smoking, casino gambling, or nose picking.

He or she will then amass all the self-discipline and moral vigor they can muster and vow to “give it up for Lent.”

Those of us “on the fast” then grimace in pain as the dessert cart wheels by our table, hoping someone will ask us, “Aren’t you going to have any?” so that we can steeple our fingers, look heavenward, and say, “No. Sorry. I gave up tiramisu for Lent.”

We can’t wait for Easter Sunday to arrive.

Yes, certainly, because it means we can once again be reminded of and celebrate Christ’s victory over the grave. But MOSTLY because Easter means we can stop tormenting ourselves with all this DENIAL and go back to the gluttony we’ve become accustomed to.

Seems a little ridiculous, doesn’t it?

Because really… if we made the decision that this “something” we gave up is corrosive enough to our souls to do away with for 40 days (not counting Sundays, of course!), why would we want to open the door and bring it back in AT ALL??

OR… is it possible that the “spring cleaning” approach to the Lenten fast is a bit misguided?

IS IT POSSIBLE that we might be called to think of the Lenten fast as less of a short-term, temporary, self-improvement program and perhaps see it more as a time to dig a little deeper… pause a little longer… pray with a little more intentionality… or reflect a little more honestly?

It might just be that the Parable of the Seeds and the Soils (found in the 13^th chapter of Matthew) sheds helpful light on a better way to understand the purpose of the Lenten fast. If you remember that parable, you know that handfuls of seed sowed by the same farmer produced vastly different results.

It was the same farmer and the same seed in all five scenarios. The thing that was different – the reason the seed either shriveled and died, or did not sprout at all or sprouted, took root, and produced a MASSIVE crop – was the SOIL.

Maybe the Lenten fast has more to do with properly preparing the soil of our hearts to receive the seeds that the Farmer is getting ready to sow there.

What do you think?

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Posts Tagged ‘spring

Reversing the Poles

Soul Winter

This Old Table

Viriditas

Spring, Soil, and Seeds

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Posts Tagged ‘spring

Reversing the Poles

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Soul Winter

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This Old Table

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Viriditas

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Spring, Soil, and Seeds

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