Every mid-February to mid-March, our kitchen is converted to a mini sugar house! We tap 3 maple tress in our yard and boil down the sap to produce anywhere from a couple quarts to a gallon or more of maple syrup. Even shared meagerly with our 3 married daughters it still gives my husband and I several months worth of homemade deliciousness.

As a bonus it also gifts me hours of patient watching: so good for my soul before the frenetic raking, planting, and yard cleaning of Springtime! It takes 6-7 hours of boiling the sap before the last 20-30 crucial minutes where an amateur has to decide…”is it ready yet?” It boils at 212 degrees, very slowly moves up to 215, and then agonizingly slowly in increments up to 210, which is EUREKA!! But 218 is not right, and 220 becomes taffy-like in seconds: no room for error. Luckily amateurs, almost as slowly as sap to syrup, become pretty proficient at guessing!

I’m grateful this is not the case when it comes to our spiritual growth. There IS room for error there. The gracious Holy One is ever ready to forgive and hand out free passes for starting over. And always there is the sweet gift of a new day/a 2nd chance!

As we turn our calendar pages to the month of March this year, the season of Lent beckons. The hardened winter earth begins to crack open for tiny tips of crocus and tulip to push upward. As we walk by still bundled against the cold, buds fatten and whisper, “I’m almost ready!” “Dare to hope!” Spring, like all our seasons, arrives when it wills. One dayit’s not quite Spring at all; snow squalls deepen our doubts that perhaps it won’t ever arrive. But one must be ready and attentive because one day dawns and it’s suddenly summer like my boiling sap, and I have missed it! I need to pay attention to subtle changes so that I’m prepared to greet Spring and honor it and welcome and celebrate it! One morning I’ll walk out onto my screened porch and there She is! I can smell her, sense winter’s harsh breath has been taken over by her gentle breeze. But I CAN miss her!!

These last few weeks I’ve been playing with the artistic notion of choosing 3 random photos, arranging them side by side as a sort of triptych, and then writing some sort of poem or phrase that the 3 images inspire. Sometimes I’ve gone on a contemplative walk and snapped photos on my phone as things in nature reveal themselves to me, in the sense of simply inviting me to come and see. Then back home I’ll look at these (Or one can do this form previously taken and saved photos), and gently see if 3 of them attract me in a certain way. This is a rewarding and simple exercise that I heartily recommend: it’s fun and also instructive! Here is one triptych I created and it said so much to me that I decided to weave it into the April virtual retreat I’m facilitating:

Every new day

The Holy One mixes and whisks

And we become what God had in mind

Go on! Go try your hand at this wonderful activity!

The first day of Spring arrives this year right in the middle of Lent. March 20, 2022 will be an auspicious day to check whether we’ve managed to already sweep something clean interiorly or exteriorly as Lent prescribes. It’s not too late if you haven’t! It’s the perfect date though to wholeheartedly acknowledge the arrival of a new season, and welcome her properly perhaps by planting or singing or creating a springtime recipe (my book, “A Seasoned Life,” offers some suggestions!) On March 20 this year my husband and I will celebrate our 47th wedding anniversary, most likely with a long walk on a favorite rail trail after boiling up a last batch of syrup!

Whatever that day and this month finds you doing, may it be grace-filled, playful, and sweet!