Lenten Wreath

I know I want some kind of tangible something to visually take us through Lent.  Along the lines of an Advent wreath, an Advent calendar, or the Jesse Tree.  Why leave all the great ideas for Advent!  I have lots of ideas for different things, but I decided I wanted to start with a wreath.  I like the idea of light during this time.  A reminder of Who is leading the way.

So, I stopped by my local craft store this afternoon on a mission to find materials to make a Lenten wreath.  I could see in my head a vague glimmer of what I wanted.  I figured I would walk around the store and like a bolt of lightning...inspiration would hit!  I've done that many, many times.  The best ideas never come until you're actually surrounded by the smell of craft paint and unfinished wood.

That was the dream.  In reality, I walked up and down the aisles completely frustrated that no craft manufacturer out there seems to be in the business of reading my mind.  Everything was too small, too big, too expensive, too plain, too over the top, too just not right.  Should the wreath have 12 candles to include the weeks of preparation, Great Lent, and Pascha?  Or is just 7 enough?  (If we start too soon with the candles, the kids might be fed up by Cheesefare.)  Should it be round or freeform?  Should it be flowers or wood?  Oooh!  Oooh!  Yes, a wooden cross with 12 candle holders.  But they don't have Orthodox crosses, of course, and I love the idea of an Orthodox cross.  The Protestant ones are so plain and lack something.  Aaargh!  They don't sell that elusive "something" in stores!

What to do...what to do.  Walk around the store again, of course!  Please tell me that I am not the only one who does this.  If I get a project idea in my head, I get trapped in some kind of paralyzing brain time warp.  I cannot, absolutely CANNOT, go forward until I get the details sorted out in my head.  Until that time, I'm stuck on repeat.  It consumes me in an unnatural way that is so detrimental to the physical, emotional, and spiritual life.

So, I spent waaaaaaay too much time at the craft store.  Eventually, I put some so-so items in the cart.  Not exactly what I wanted, but at this point, I was so desperate, I was semi-content to settle.

As I made my way to the check-out, I had it...the moment of inspiration.  It wasn't anywhere near where I thought I would find the "perfect" thing, but I walked around the corner of the aisle and there it was:

Not the fanciest thing ever, but it caught my eye.  I've put out a challenge to myself to make this year the Year of Simplicity.  I've filled my plate so full lately, it's out of control.  Add to that some chronic health problems I have, and I try in futility each day to keep that ever-shrinking plate balanced.  It must stop.  I need to decrease so Christ can increase.  I need to do less.  I need to just be...with God.

This candle holder is simplicity to me.  The gracefulness of the line.  The fact that I wouldn't have to hurt my brain to make it work.  The fact that it was super-cheap.  We have a winner!

So, I went back through the store one more time, but I knew what I was getting.  Simplicity doesn't have to mean that my creative streak completely goes out the window, so I got the things that would make the candle holder my own.  First, I jazzed up the votive holders:

A little more texture is a little more my style.  Then, I added the candles:

On the first Sunday of Great Lent, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we will light one purple candle during our family reading and prayer time.  We'll light that one candle each night that week.  Beginning the next Sunday, we will light two candles.  The next Sunday, we will light three candles.  And so on, and so on.  On Pascha, we will light all the purple candles and the white candle in the center.

It needed one more thing, though.  Something to set the theme of Lent.  Something to remind the kids what all these spiritual endeavors are about.  That was the easiest part.  I knew exactly what to say.  I bought a small, unfinished wood oval.  At home, I painted it purple.  Then, I had my husband, whose handwriting looks way better than my chicken scratch, write the first line of one of my favorite Lenten songs...Open to me the doors of repentance.  I attached the oval with a glob of hot glue.

 

There we go.  Not what I thought I would end up with, but really the perfect thing for our family.  I wanted something with votives, so I would have the option to leave the candles burning in vigil with less fire hazard.  I wanted simplicity that still had my personal stamp on it.  I wanted...an open door.  

So, I wasted an afternoon in my own head.  I start off my Lenten preparations already in need of repentance.  Where I make things complicated, God is simple.  Where I am shallow, He is complex.  Where I am wandering, He is centered.  He keeps calling me to be simple, and I just make things so, so hard. 

Lord, have mercy on me for my wavering heart!  Forgive me for wasting time.  Time I could have spent praying.  Time I forgot what repentance is really all about.

Open to me the doors of repentance, O Giver of Life...  Open the doors...