Paying Attention
Spring is here, the pollen is swirling about, and the light is hanging around a bit longer each day. I’ve been marveling at the azaleas blooming, the tulips showing off, and the dogwoods blossoming. It seems like these all appeared overnight. There were bare limbs and then all of a sudden – there were full blooms!
I remember back a few years ago when the world first paused at the beginning of the pandemic. Back when we were stuck in our homes and limited in our movements, I would go out for a walk almost daily and watch spring emerge around me. I saw the blooms start to peek out and prepare to burst forth. I had the tingling feelings of anticipation as every day I could sense full spring was a little bit closer with each new bud or green leaf!
This year I have been longing for spring – but I feel like I missed the anticipation entirely. I didn’t experience the buildup of the hints of spring coming. Everything was dormant – and then I realized that everything was full of life. Did it happen overnight? I felt as though there was an on/off switch to spring.
I know things like that don’t happen overnight. We witnessed every single step of spring two years ago. And yet, this year, I missed it. I was distracted. I didn’t pause. I didn’t look for the signs of new life. Spring snuck up on me and all of a sudden was here in full force.
I think the same thing can be true about our mental health. Sometimes we can see the decline of our mental health happening as we start to withdraw from others or our thoughts start getting caught in anxious pattern loops. And other times it feels like the depression or anxiety comes out of nowhere and our mental health changes overnight. Much like spring, there are usually signs of our mental health changing. Sometimes we can recognize those signs. And other times, we claim that the signs and symptoms snuck up on us and came out of nowhere.
Most of the time, it really matters how much we are paying attention. It depends on if we are acknowledging and observing the signs or if we are distracted and focused elsewhere.
This isn’t new for us to be a bit oblivious about signs of what’s changing. As we are preparing for Holy Week, we hear the familiar stories again and again. The stories where Jesus tells the disciples what is coming and they continue to be surprised. Jesus predicts that Peter will deny him three times and Peter himself seems shocked that he does. Jesus alluded to his own resurrection on multiple occasions. All the signs were there of what was coming. Both for Jesus’ death – and his resurrection. The story shouldn’t be a surprise in how it ends – yet for the disciples, it still seemed to catch them off guard. When we read the story back, we can see the signs everywhere. They weren’t hidden. The disciples and others simply didn’t understand or weren’t paying attention.
Signs of what is coming are all around us. It matters if we pay attention or not.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s a great time of year to acknowledge signs and symptoms that can clue us in on the state of our mental health or the mental health of others. Make sure you’re talking about these from the pulpit and normalizing the conversation. 1 in 5 adults has a mental illness. That’s a lot of people. And clergy have higher rates of depression than the average US adult. A reported 14% of clergy (in the most recent Wespath research) suffer from depression.
Mental health needs are prevalent in the world around us. The signs and symptoms are there. Are we noticing them? Are we teaching others to notice it? Check out the resources section to learn more about trainings and statistics to share this May.
Grateful for you,
Lindsay
