NUDGINGS: a journey into the unknown

Easter is here for another year. The forty days of Lent are behind us as we go into the  3 act drama that tells the Easter story: Maundy Thursday   with the last Supper and the vigil in the garden, Good Friday with the crucifixion and the burial, followed by the glorious news of Easter morning   that Christ is Risen! Each year we seem to focus more on the three days of Easter then we do on the 40 days of Lent. Yet without those forty days, the Easter celebrations wouldn’t be the same. Those forty days to study, to learn, and to focus on the story we are celebrating add immeasurably to those celebrations as they add another layer to our understanding of the story. We got our 4th booster shot of the COVID vaccine regimen   this past week. While the first 3 doses were important and added to our immunity, this 4th dose will not only bring our waining   immunity up to what it   after the previous shots, but will add another layer of immunity… just like Lent does for Easter.

As  masks are removed, vaccine mandates disappear and as cases rise, we are being encouraged to venture forth into this brave new world. So these two words rang true to me. .. Anticipatory Anxiety. As I gingerly put my toe into the water, I find myself wishing for the four walls of home. Nightmares which were common in the first few months of the pandemic have returned. Just thinking about venturing out is enough to make the muscles in my stomach clench. Yes, I am anticipating the worst,or at best the unknown, that awaits me outside the door. I notice in the stores that whether you wear a mask or not seems to depend on the colour of your hair. The grayer the hair is the more likely that person is to be wearing a mask-at least right now. Probably because we are in the season of Lent and also because I have been reading ‘Witness at the Cross’ by Amy Jill Levine, I find myself seeing corollaries in the story of the events leading up to the first Easter and my current experience of tryin