Enough 

Amidst the atmosphere of coronavirus, I’m not sure that any of us intended to give up quite THIS much for Lent (fellowship, convenience, access). But it’s a good time to look inward and reassess what is truly important to us.

I’ve always been a homebody and take pride in surrounding myself with objects that I admire. I’m tidy – I totally applied the Marie Kondo method of decluttering to my whole house about three years ago. To say that I love my home is a huge understatement.

So, in 2001, when I encountered a flood in my house from a faulty toilet, I was understandably shaken. It was a chilly early November night. I had just erected my Christmas tree because, as a church musician, I knew I would not have time to do this during the actual Christmas season. I returned home from work to find my sheltie dog, Beau, skipping through about five inches of water to welcome me home.

I quickly called my faith community to come to my house and help me move everything onto the front lawn so that the water could be swept out. There were moments of embarrassment (what would friends think of my Christmas tree up on November 6?), horror (the youth group boys took my underwear drawer out of the dresser to move to the lawn!) – and thankfulness. My friends truly saved the day through their generosity!

So many lessons were learned from that flood. When everything settled down and I began to assess the losses, I experienced a feeling of … relief! It surprised me more than anyone, but actually losing half of my belongings brought a renewed sense of freedom. I discovered that the memory of those treasures was enough. Enough. I hardly replaced anything.

Living through the coronavirus is teaching us the concept of enough. What is enough food? What is enough social interaction? What is enough meditation time? I suspect, on the other end of this crisis, we will understand truths about ourselves that we would never before stopped to consider. Perhaps we can go forward with just enough, and give the rest of ourselves and our possessions away.