Lately one of my favorite words is a verb: tending. I find myself saying it a lot. In nearly every instance I’m trying to remind myself the importance of taking care of something, whether that’s my heart, my body a relationship, or the land I live on. 

Tending brings up for me the kind of care that is steadfast and consistent, like walking alongside a friend when they need someone to listen to them for a long while, like assuring our child that we are in it with them for the long haul, we will never abandon them.

Tending. Tending a fire – giving a fire the elements it needs to thrive, making sure there is enough wood but also enough space and oxygen. Keeping an eye on it, moving things around as it begins to die down so that it can spark back into life.

I wonder about that word and its word relatives – how is it connected to tender? And what does it mean to tenderize something? When we do that with a piece of meat we exert our physicality onto it and break it down so it becomes easier to eat and digest. 

The root of the word turns up in another one of my favorite words and concepts: intention, to in-tend something is to hold that thing in our heart/mind with an energy that calls it into reality.

The word’s language family has a lot of poetry in it:
    Latin: Intentionem: “a stretching out, straining, exertion, effort; attention”
    French: intendre “to direct one’s attention”

So as we turn into the cycle of another full moon, I wonder – What are you giving your attention to? What are you stretching yourself toward, what are you intending for the precious days of your life, however many you have left?

Even if you don’t have solid answers to these questions, you give yourself a beautiful gift by creating space to allow the questions to unfold. I hope you do.