Life Finds A Way

Life finds a way…. In the spring weeds that miraculously break through the cracks and crevices of our driveways, in newborn creatures of all shapes and sizes who instinctively grasp on to and grow into this new world they’ve entered, in those of any age fighting illness & disease who with the help of the science of medicine and dedicated health care workers sometimes unexpectedly find healing…life finds a way.  In this season of the year we focus on the power and hope of new life, rebirth, and the joy and warmth the sun gives after cold dark winter days. The plethora of nature’s colors in full bloom enlivens our bodies, souls, and minds. This time of year the beauty and wonder of life is on full display. Life, mysteriously and awe-inspiringly, microscopically and macroscopically, finds a way.

But life finds a way not only in the new, the young, and the beautiful. Perhaps that’s one of the important messages that Easter brings to those open to it. Sometimes life finds a way…even in the darkness, the desperate, the despairing, and yes, even in death itself. That paradox is one that those of us who work in end of life care see, hear, and experience in a multitude of ways as midwives for the soul. Every day we have the opportunity to embody with our touch, our compassion, and the rest of who we are this seeming contradiction. Every day as we companion patients, families, and staff we witness the pain, suffering, fear, uncertainty, courage, and love incarnated in a diverse array of situations “in the valley of the shadow.” Surprisingly in these trenches when we find ourselves experiencing or witnessing the truth of our inevitable death…we are faced with the reality that faith, hope, and love remain, and that the greatest of these is indeed love. Life still finds a way. Is not the ancient Easter story centered on an unjust death that caused those who followed the Jewish rabbi Jesus to question all that they thought they knew and loved, only to be blindsided by the impossibility of an empty tomb?

This year we find ourselves in angst ridden territory. The continuing pandemic, war in Europe, continuing inequities of race, gender, and economics, and generational economic uncertainties loom. Hopefully the shock of this moment hasn’t already numbed us beyond our ability to have ears to hear and eyes to see the wonder and tenacity of life present all around us. In the midst of the pain, suffering, death, and grief experienced by us and those we love, by neighbors and strangers, and by our collective human family, perhaps these four words can provide a safe space of respite from the storms that rage both within us and all around us. Life finds a way. Might we even call it good news? As weeds irritatingly explode through small openings to make their presence known, as seeds die to what they once were to provide the raw materials that sprout into new forms of life, as unfathomable and unlikely it is that a tomb can be empty, life inexplicably finds a way. Amen.