This week we entered into the season of Lent. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday in which we marked ourselves with the dust and remembered that we come from dust and will return to dust. A dear friend texted me, “welcome to Easter Advent!” I had to chuckle. She subscribes to my daily devotional during this time and it isn’t that far off that this season is also about waiting for something new to break into the world. This season is a little bit different though, isn’t it? While Advent is about light breaking through in the midst of darkness, I have looked at Lent as if it is about wading through the darkness in order to see new life at the end. For Christians this time is about walkign with Jesus through suffering and death, through our very mortality, turning and transforming ourselves in order to make way for new life, for resurrection. Both seasons though are the inbetween times, the liminal times.

Ana and I recently went to Valencia for a week. We loved every moment of it and I will write more about that trip in the near future but in thinking about it, we were standing in between times in some ways. We are making some decisions about our life but there is a lot that is not yet. On this trip we were standing in between corona times…should we travel or not? We are waiting on some key things before we can move back to the states. All of it feels as though we are in liminal space. Or at least this is what I keep referring to and the trip met us where we are. I got to walk and walk all day and ponder and watch the new light. It wasn’t hot but it was warmer than Berlin and I loved watching the sun through the day and the people interact with it. It is a lovely city that perhaps I could spend way more time in.

In each location I watched the light shine through colorful windows and loved the colors dancing. Standing in the in between times means we get to notice things we hadn’t before and relish the things we take for granted in our lives.

How will you stand in the in between this season? What does that look like for you? Do you celebrate Lent and how? Do you take something on? Give something up?