The In Between Times

I’m writing in early March in between winter and spring. Some flowers are budding, some green, is coming back but most of the trees are bare. For those who observe Lent we’re between Ash Wednesday and Easter. Our sacrifices may be starting to grind on us a bit. In much of the U.S., with the continuation of the ongoing global pandemic we’re between the hope of vaccination and the horror of fatigue, cynical impatience, and carelessness giving rise to continued death and suffering. This time of anticipation can waiver between hope and dread. sometimes going back and forth between the two, some times having both at the same time.

Its among these times though where that grating annoyance of being in between can offer gifts. It presents the opportunity to consider multiple facets of a situation. Sitting in between that place of having desires and indulging them gives the opportunity to examine them. Sitting in that ambiguity between hope and despair can teach us what matters. It can let us look underneath these hopes, desires, and fears. It lets us consider how we hold and pursue desires, what they serve, what they mean, and where they come from.

To me, this is the gift of Lent and fasting. This is the gift of doing without. This is the gift of the in-between. Is there something you have been holding on to that you need to let go? Something maybe that you should just hold loosely rather than a hard clinch? Where are the spaces of breath in your life? Where are the cracks that let the light in?

My prayer for you, beloved one, is that as we find ourselves in those in-between times that we find gifts of insight, courage, and spiritual strength. to carry forward into new life.