As days lengthen and spring arrives in the Sonoran Desert, wildflower season begins. We went for a walk at nearby Sanctuary Cove and found fourteen species. My favorite is the yellow-golden Mexican poppy. We’re also planting petunias and marigolds on our porches. Tessa is a more avid and attentive gardener than I am, so her porch is especially flamboyant.
Lent is a good time for solitude, for creating breathing room for the spirit. We use our solitary time lately to write. Tessa is immersing herself in her formative years in Sedona, Arizona and I catalogued 165 articles I wrote over twenty-five years, from 1979 to 2004. It filled me with gratitude and embarrassment, too. I’ll write more about that in an upcoming post. I’ll also post a reflection from 1978, when I was pondering the difference between the spirit of the desert and the spirit of the forest. And Tessa has posted her imaginative Saguaro Stations of the Cross for these last weeks of Lent. Her words and photos introduce a whole new approach to this devotion with roots in medieval Europe.
We look forward to next month’s gathering in Patagonia, Arizona. Tessa and I will facilitate reflections on “Homeland of the Heart: the Desert and Poetry,” April 14-15. Finish your taxes and then join us to enjoy breathing room for your spirit. Find out more here.
Mourning and Rejoicing
Christians call today Laetare Sunday, which means Rejoice Sunday. The verse introducing todays’s Catholic Mass comes from the prophet Isaiah:
Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her,
all you who love her;
Exult, exult with her,
all you who were mourning over her! (Isaiah 66:10)
You may have heard that Jerusalem and all of Israel/Palestine is in even more turmoil than usual these days. Isaiah’s words may sound hollow or seem to apply only to a long-lost past. But dare we hope? Ramadan begins this Thursday, and Passover begins on Holy Thursday this year. May we People of the Book, perpetrators and victims of injustice and violence, focus on healing during these holy days. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to rejoice with Isaiah:
I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people. (Isaiah 65:17-19)
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