Coming Home

For days now, during the season of Lent, I have asked God this question.

"How do I find my way home?'

 And then...just like Dorothy...I realized I always had the way home. There, on my feet, were my own ruby red slippers and three click, click, clicks of my heels later, I magically returned home.

Here.

This is the blog where it all started for me, where my insane need to allow words to leak out started. And leak they did. Just a trickle here and there, but this is where the flow began.

A flow meant to continue here now.

Lent is a time for digging.

I love to dig. with a shovel- out in my gardens. And even shoveling snow, something I  have been doing frequently here lately in the northeast, holds a certain charm for me.

Tools. Shovels. Hammers. Invaluable for certain tasks that would be impossible otherwise.

I had a winter dilemma a couple weeks ago. A storm came through that started with snow, turned to ice, and then became rain. I went out to survey the sloppy, slippery, mess and to shovel. This was not a day I enjoyed that task until I saw the water pooling at the base of my driveway. I went down to observe.

I found the problem. The drain to the side of my driveway was blocked by a huge mound of plowed snow. The water was trapped. Here was a problem I knew immediately how to solve, so different than some of the others in my life.

Back into the garage I went, retrieving the heavy duty metal shovel. I used the snow shovel first, but when it got down to the crusty icy layer of snow, that metal shovel was just the tool I needed. I plunged, with all my strength, the pointed edge of it down into the blockage, several times, until it gave way.

At first there was just a little open space on the grates of the drain, but the water began to find its way down. I then realized I needed another tool. A hammer. There was ice lodged in the grates that the shovel blade couldn't reach.

The hammer was perfect. Bang. bang, bang. Piece by piece the ice fell. The water could now flow freely.

No more water at the base of my driveway.

Christ was lead into the wilderness. For forty days and forty nights. The Holy Spirit used a shovel- fasting, isolation. A hammer- temptation. Preparing Jesus for his ministry.

Each of us faces those wilderness times in our lives, maybe many times over. The pain of the digging and the shattering doubles us over, revealing things to us that we would rather not see.

But there is purpose, so much purpose. It is all preparation.

My departure from home was necessary and fruitful. Open passage was a time of exploration and escape. I hope you will check out some of my work there through the link on the sidebar.

But Wow!!! It's great to be home.