A Season of Tending

During this season of Lent, social distancing, isolation; a sadness swells to the surface as I consider what hunkering down might look like if Hanna were with us. She'd be 16 months old and undoubtedly adding a extra dose of joy that we experience with our other children.

If we consider the rhythms of nature, we notice that there is a season where tending to things takes a priority. The tending and caretaking quality is one that is usually relegated to the southwest or mid summer but it is found in other seasons as well. We tend to our gardens in summer, we tend to our harvests in autumn, we tend to our spiritual selves in winter etc.. It's a cyclical pattern that reemerges throughout the year.

We had a weeping cherry tree planted last fall in memory of Hanna (see pic above) and now that spring is on here in Michigan, I find myself tending to that tree. I am daily cultivating an attitude of tending to that tree. I find myself detangling the hanging branches much like I would if I were brushing her hair. I am tidying up the mulch as I might wipe her food-y face with a wash rag. I'm making sure the support rope is helping to keep the tree upright as we would in instilling our faith and values to her. I am watering the tree as we would create a nurturing environment for her to grow and put her roots down. I am watching the buds growing daily as I might notice how Hanna would be growing and learning something new everyday. This tree has become a tangible reminder for me to care for my family, myself and our earth. I am anticipating a glorious blooming of our Hanna tree as reminder that all things, when tended well, become what they were created to be.

How would I not choose to see this time that we are living in with the covid19 pandemic as just another season for doing some intentional tending? Tending to the space we live in, tending to the earth we live on, tending to the needs of our family, tending to the needs of those most vulnerable, tending to our emotional and spiritual needs. May we rediscover the role of caretaking in our lives.