One Step

Overwhelming–I often hear that word and even more often say it when faced with what seem to be impossible tasks. Occasionally I watch a TV show about people who suffer from compulsive hoarding tendencies or who are long neglectful of day to day clean-up. All have reached a point where the clutter or hoarded items become impossible to deal with. Too much. Overwhelming. Unfixable.

Yet, I know there is a way through this. This ordinary saying rings in my head when I look at what seems like an impossible task in front of me: “The journey of thousand miles begins with a single step.”

Last week, I surveyed my yard and garden with significant dismay. Family and health issues, a lingering sadness over my mother’s death, all coupled with work pressures and a need to finish a major writing project meant that I never cleaned up the yard or garden last fall. My husband had begun rebuilding the vegetable beds in the back. That task also remains unfinished. Early spring weeds flourish, almost inevitable with our preference for all organic methods, but they bother my eye and need for neatness.

It’s just a mess. As I looked with growing despair, I starting thinking about people who have lost everything in floods, fires, and other natural disasters. The rebuild seems overwhelming, utterly impossible. I considered those whose financial futures have been trashed by the economic upheavals of the past few years. My mind soared to those in Egypt and Libya and other places where the entire societies are going to have to be rebuilt. I pondered broken relationships, the ones that seem unreconcilable. Overwhelming. Impossible. Where to start?

Here is a suggestion, a first step:Wednesday, March 9, is Ash Wednesday. This day marks the beginning of Lent, a time set aside each year for rigorous soul examination. We accompany Jesus on that final journey to Jerusalem, through the darkness of undeserved death and then awaken to the joy of new life on Easter Sunday.