From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.
~Yehuda Amichai “The Place Where We are Right”

I’ve learned the hard way that my being “right” may discourage whatever sprouts and grows and blooms. Rather than find their way through my crustiness, they remain underground, safe from my strenuous protests and insistence. If they bravely try to surface, they might be trampled and broken.

Instead of being right, I need to turn over that hard ground, revealing my doubts and worries, exposed to new light and warmth.

Instead of being right, I need to love and listen and be open to the whispering of that still small voice telling the truth.

Instead of insisting on being right, I rebuild what I have ruined.

Then we may all have a chance to bloom.

This year’s Lenten theme:
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4: 18