Some Things Cannot Be Undone

Housekeeping tip of the day - 
Do not store your jug of liquid fabric softener
​in the garage in winter.

February 13, 2024

Beloved:
          Downy liquid fabric softener reminds me of my childhood and my mother, so when I came across a $4 off coupon for the giant jug I got one and have kept it on a garage shelf, refilling the mason jar in the teeny tiny cupboard of my teeny tiny laundry room as needed, for months.  Who knew that when outside temps fall below zero Downy coagulates, it curdles, it clots?  And no matter how long you let the jug sit on your kitchen counter, it does not un-coagulate, uncurdle nor unclot.  It no longer pours, it plops.  So I’ve replaced the mason jar spout with a lid and I use a coffee scoop to get it from the jar to the fabric softener slot of my washing machine.  The point being that, once done, certain things cannot be undone.  For better and for worse, I suppose.
          Lent begins tomorrow, our forty-day reflection on the trouble and trauma humans have inflicted upon one another, so little of which is ever truly healed.  So much of which lingers for generation upon generation in our memory and in the systems that dictate our lives and lives together.  To heal is to listen to the real pain experienced by those harmed by our own actions.  And listening is itself painful - and thus resisted, sometimes even reversed to blame the victims for the trauma we ourselves caused, or may even continue to cause.  So much pain all around makes healing so very, very difficult, so very, very rare.  Thus, for worse, we leave certain things, reconciliation in particular, undone.
          Lent never lasts forever, nor does our repentance.  Come Good Friday, all Death is put to death by the only One who can.  All that trouble and trauma, reconciled or not, is resolved by the only One who can.  We are free to live free of it.  And that freedom cannot be undone, by anything or anyone, ever.  That is Easter, which always comes after Good Friday.  But first, Lent.  We will begin our Lenten reflection and practice with the Ash Wednesday Service tomorrow evening at 7:30.  In addition, some are joining me in reading a Lenten devotional by John Pavlovitz, Rise.  I will send details about the reading group in a separate email.  I am glad to be with you in the faith.
 
~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette