A Capacity for Delight

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“God, somehow joy and sorrow can coexist. During these long, bleak days of Lent, surprise me with a capacity for delight. Remind me that every moment can contain a wide range of experience. Thank you for the capacity to hold both at the same time.” – Kate Bowler

May we allow both joy and sorrow.
Choosing joy when it’s absolutely unreasonable to even consider.
Permitting sorrow to open and expand.
Yes, and.
No, but.
Deeper and higher at once.
Stirred, shaken, buoyed, steady.
Aware, awake, in awe and never losing heart.
Dimensions, layers, complexity, patterns, connections.
From knowing to unknowing and back again.
Circles, cycles, seasons, endings, beginnings, unraveling, unfolding, binding and building anew.
Changeable, malleable, transformable.

“Lent comes providentially to awaken us, to shake us from our lethargy.” – Pope Francis