The roots of the word lent can be traced to the ‘lengthening of daylight hours’.

In music, lento means slow.

Relenting means an easing or lessening.

Lent, like advent, is a season of waiting in the darkness or wilderness for that which is not yet to become.

A season of between. It can be challenging to be between. One day’s warmth is forgotten in the bitter wind of the next. The lenten roses hang their heavy pink heads under the weight of blooming before spring arrives. An out of time blossom that, to me, speaks of hope and possibility. If a flower can open its petals on a February day, then perhaps, I too can find a way to stretch myself toward light and possibility in this present season.