Ash Wednesday

There is a loneliness epidemic in our society. Lent is the remedy.

And so we begin. Lent is upon us and Christians around the globe will be pondering their mortality, their faults, and generally avoiding sugar for the next several weeks. Are you giving up something for Lent? Taking something on? I’m simplifying, I guess.

Truth be told, once again, I do not know what I am doing.

What I want to do is write more. I want to share with y’all what I discover by writing more. I want to focus on simply being alive, the day-to-day act of living. When people ask me what being a hospice chaplain has taught me it is this: pay attention to being alive. That’s all. Notice where the sun shines on the floor in your living room. Have a favorite coffee mug. Remember how your lover’s hair smells after a shower. Embrace solitude. Enjoy a crowd from time to time. Stand in line at the grocery story and buy that last minute treat.

You see, we all die. There’s no getting around it. All the little ways we try to forget our deaths, ignore our deaths, or generally postpone our deaths are a distraction from living life. And living life has nothing to do with thrill seeking (Though, that can be fun.). Living life is the fine art of paying attention to the commonplace.

Yes, I turned paying attention into an art form. Be creative with it. Why not? Get good at it.

There is a loneliness epidemic in our society. One step, I believe, in overcoming loneliness is simply to recognize that you are lonely. Take a look around you. Notice your own feelings, your inner landscape, the state of your soul. Are you lonely? Map out the terrain of your life. Decipher your loneliness. Then, start to name the things around you.

Today, I am drinking my coffee from a favorite mug. A candle is lit. An icon of St. Francis accompanies my morning writing. Yes, I have taken my medication and checked my blood sugar. I can hear the hum of the refrigerator. The table cloth needs cleaning. Maybe I’ll take the leaves out of the table today and put them away. Flowers are blooming in a vase. There is so much happening that I cannot tell it all to you. You need to be here.

And there it is: the bridge from loneliness to fellowship is the realization that we need to be with one another. Isolation is a kind of violence. Solitude feeds the soul while isolation starves it.

So, to avoid isolation, I pay attention. I notice. Then I respond.

May this Lent be an opportunity for you to end isolation, to notice, and respond.