Cultivating, Lent & Letting go
We have been members of Overalls Farm for the past few years and our favorite season by far is tomato time. There is nothing like the taste of fresh-off-the-vine cherry tomatoes! I just wish tomato time lasted longer. We are always sad to see that season come to an end and to watch as the sun-dried, shriveled-up vines are plucked up to make room for something else to grow.
It reminds me that letting go is an unavoidable part of farm life and an unavoidable part of our lives, too.
Our theme this year has been “Cultivate” and we have been cultivating contemplative practices and sharing stories about what is being brought to life in and around us. We have also been exploring what kind of change, healing, care, and compassion Jesus cultivated through his life, teachings & presence. He is the source of so much hope and liberation, and at the same time, the life he is cultivating involves a lot of letting go.
That is certainly true in the gospel according to Mark which we’ve been exploring together. Whether Jesus is leaving one place and heading to another or inviting a wealthy person to part with possessions or grieving the loss of his beloved cousin or coming to terms with his purpose or facing his own death, letting go seems central to the journey of faith and life.
It makes me wonder why we spend so much more time accumulating, earning and achieving and so little time learning how to let go.
As we welcome the season of Lent together this Wednesday, we will continue our theme of “cultivate” and turn toward the role that letting go plays in making room for something new to take root and grow. As Ash Wednesday collides with Valentine’s Day this year, the question I’ve been pondering is this: What is Love inviting us to let go of? Maybe it’s an old fear or shame-based story, maybe it’s a harmful habit, maybe it’s a bias or a way of being or a painful pattern we’ve just begun to see or something else entirely.
Lent is never hypothetical as life’s impermanence is always giving us opportunities to let go, but this year that feels especially true. During Lent, we’ll let go of a gathering space we’ve grown to love. As we enter a future that is still unclear, it’s becoming we may also need to release any demand for a well-laid-out plan!
Whatever Lent means or doesn’t mean to you, I look forward to seeing how we’ll be shaped by this season. We’ll gather on Overalls Farm 1 tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. for an Ash Wednesday bring-something-to-share dinner followed by a time of reflection and opportunity to receive ashes.