Having Fun with Snow and Mud

Managing the mud. Wystan uses very tangible images and experiences of early spring to raise larger reflections on the way life unfolds - often in messy ways. Each phase of season comes with a mixed blessing and a lingering resistance to moving into the challenges of the next. Wystan helps us see this in a broader context through a playful exploration of mud. -Editor.

I am thinking about snow and mud. On the one hand, three plus months of grey skies and wet to icy precipitation falling out of it leave us longing for the sunshine, gardens, outdoor games, and morning walks without a parka that are coming. And warmer temperatures means mud.

During every warming trend this long winter I was reminded of this fact. Every weather shift brought two simultaneous and conflicting emotion: “YES!” and “ohhh noooooo.” Muddy footprints cover the floors, muddy eggs fill the nesting boxes, mud-caked shoes pile up on the porch and are strewn through the hall, muddy drying doggie legs shed dusty sandy stuff in piles all night long.

This morning, as I plowed through my reading for Arcana class, the natural phenomenon of mud banged into a spiritual thought as I read

“A life of faith without love is like sunlight without warmth – the kind of light that occurs in winter, when nothing grows and everything droops and dies.” Arcana Coelestia 34(2)

In winter we have light, sometimes glorious sparkling light, and even some heat from the sun - snow melts even in very cold air temperatures when the sun’s angle is right. But all plant life dies or at least is at stasis. Things don’t grow.

And yet, it strikes me powerfully (as I stare at the floors of my house) how handy it is to have everything frozen up solid, compared to the mud of kinder weather!

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The Caritas Challenge

Wystan is discontent with the superficial elements of Valentines day. She offers us a new love challenge to take it to a deeper level with bigger repercussions. -Editor.

It’s love month. And while some people think this means chocolate, and the jewelry stores are working to have you think it means diamonds, and the card shops count on you to think of red paper hearts, I have another idea. I think the New Christian Church could turn this month into a celebration of the love of marriage and our fellowman.

It’s also a cold month. February is a cold dreary one in the northern hemisphere, particularly this year. But in any year, February is either snowy and bitter (Maine or Michigan or Sweden), or rainy and cold (Maryland and Virginia and England), or just muddy (Georgia and France) depending. Once upon a time, some western European person had the clever idea of writing love-affirming notes to friends in remembrance St. Valentine. Somehow Valentine's martyrdom—the nature of which almost none of today’s chocolate eaters thinks about—was transformed into something for everyone to celebrate in a life affirming way. That is: maybe it isn’t spring yet darling, but until the seeds sprout under the artificial heat lamps and daffodils pop up outside, let me tell you that I love you, comfort you with something red, and put something tasty in your mouth!

So, why couldn’t such a transformation happen again?

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Anger

Wystan uses a sermon of Chuck Blair's as a starting point to speak about the frustration and anger she holds around caring for their handicapped child. She writes about where she finds solace in the midst of life's uncontrollable events and her progress in moving through pain. -Editor

(This article was first written as a blog on Livestream for New Church Live – the writer wanted to share it in support of others who care for very special needs people. What follows is just a part of the picture, thankfully. Bless you all.)

I turned on New Church Live on Livestream a few weeks back looking for a church service, not really for the message, but because I wanted to hear our daughter (a dorm student at ANC high school) sing with her choir. But I think that the Lord had me tuning in to hear the minister Chuck Blair’s message.

Chuck spoke that morning about anger and forgiveness. A lot of the examples he used were war-like, and, it seemed to me, very oriented to a male way of thinking about anger and revenge. I am lucky enough to say that I can’t even relate to the idea of loss of a loved one by violence – this is so far from my experience it doesn’t seem real.

But I live and breathe with anger and resentment just barely managed — and for me the language, the texture of anger is the slow, tiny, repetitive efforts to take care of my son, who is profoundly mentally handicapped; to get him to wash his hands, to brush his teeth, to clean up his poop and pee messes, day after day, after day, after day.

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Poems

Wrestling with spiritual themes, Wystan shares her work with readers. Poetry is a rare but appreciated addition to New Church Perspective's publishing fare. -Editor

Chosen

We lined up and stood there
waiting to be chosen
for dancing class.
I see it again --
The awful moment
watching them come across,
and part
to each side around me,
choosing partners.
How much easier
years before
when the square dancing began--

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