By Chris McDonnell
Mar 19 2024
IT was a grey morning; dawn had just broken. I pressed the switch for the bedroom light. Nothing happened. The greyness remained. So rather than read a book, I drifted back to sleep. The trip-out of the electricity supply could wait a while.
A trivial thing, to be without light in the small hours. Inconvenient yes, but a very different proposition when power is lost in a whole neighborhood or city for several days or weeks at a time.
That has been the pattern across the southeastern sector of Ukraine and the cramped, overcrowded Gaza Strip in the eastern Mediterranean. After continual bombardment, much that was recognizable is now no more than pile upon pile of disconnected rubble. Cityscapes changed beyond description, inhabited by homeless families, waiting, their lives changed.
The kitchen has been replaced by the street lines of hungry men, women and wide-eyed children, huddled expectantly, with empty bowls, for food. Their experience of change has been radical and rapid with no clear end point in sight.
Each year we experience change through the passing of Seasons, both climatical and liturgical. Now with Springtime almost upon in the northern hemisphere, we hope for brighter, warmer days, days of growth in our fields. At the same time, we walk the pathway of the season of Lent, looking for the reality of growth in our lives.
I wrote these few lines last week:
A change of season
The chill, dark soil of winter
eases the season change
over the folded hills of March.
Damp, stained shoes from a walk
through frost-flaked grass
till, on reaching the farm gate,
the sprung metal catch anchors
bare fingers, swings open, then
clatters closed behind, rattling.
Flowers are breaking through
ahead of time, offering purple
yellow and white amid green.
Gather time in cupped hands
guard it as a nest for later rest
when evening comes close.
Then settle down with memories,
Of people, places and events
Close your hands round dreams.
May this Lent bring to each one of us a cared-for change, nurturing all that leads us to God, clearing the land for new growth and strength in the days ahead as we approach the paschal feast of Resurrection. – La Croix International
Chris McDonnell is a retired headteacher from England and a regular contributor to La Croix International.
