lent... going to the dogs

Signs of spring on the farm... little green grass pushing up through the brown in the fields... five fawns spotted in the berry patch... the robins flying low over the field... bluebirds visiting their nests from last year... early tulips and daffodils blooming... the basset hounds, Phoebe and Zeke and Barney stretched full length in the warm sun, sleeping...the noisy chorus of peepers at the pond... four pair of wild ducks swimming on the pond... the willow tree buds...two new baby calves running full tilt down the hill with their tails held high... the sunrise comes earlier in the morning. While visiting my friend and next door neighbor Leisa, we step outside her door and both sniff at the same time... reflexively... the earth smells of spring. Everywhere I look, spring is springing. In my soul, Lent is moving still towards death but signs of resurrection in the natural world help me hold on to hope.
My mother and my friend Dianne are weak kneed about enduring cold. They hail from warmer climates and haven’t adjusted well. Spring is a season of hope and disappointment for them. One day it is warm, balmy breezes, flowers popping up, arthritis pains forgotten. The next day we have snow on the ground. Spring season, like life, cannot be depended upon to hold a steady course.
Like dogs and children, I am trying to live in the present moment... content... no worry or anticipation for the future. Of course this only works during the time I set aside for quiet and writing. Real life keeps me hopping... back and forth between family, work, church, income taxes, friends, housecleaning, picking up the prescriptions, washing clothes, planting berry bushes, feeding the cows, paying the bills, changing light bulbs, cooking (now that mama is here, that is a shared creation), picking up and cleaning up as I move through my life sometimes at warp speed.
How do I practice the art of active contentment and not let myself be consumed by tasks and feelings of fear, anger, frustration or sadness?
A quote from Euripides... "The man (and woman and child) is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of a life." Saint Paul said... "I have learned to be content with what I have. I know what it is to have little and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and going hungry, of having plenty and being in need. I can do all things through the One who strengthens me." So there is the secret to being actively contented... the living from day to day in the moment like Phoebe and Zeke... experiencing the simple goodness of our life... at the same time being grateful for all life brings us... easy and difficult... joy and sorrow... times of plenty and times of need...resting in the certain knowledge that the One who loves us beyond all measure is our strength. For Lent, I will give up worry about the future and give thanks for the present... warm sun... loved ones close by... health... moments of pure joy passing through my life... and the steady presence of Love Divine.