After trying to go it alone day in, day out, you start to realize you can't do it alone. That's miserable. In the desert, you're radically dependent: on the Lord, and on people who surround you.

Relationships are not accessory. They're essential.

This breakthrough happens humanly and spiritually. All the physical sufferings start to purify you and you can experience what's most important. It's in our weakness that the only comfort, relationship, comes alive.

Once you lean into that, you can find joy in struggle because you're in it together. It's when all the distractions are taken away that you can focus on the gift of relationship.

But being left with nothing except relationship can be a scary moment. You can put off that moment for a long time. You can run from it.

So… don't. Instead, embrace the built-in grace of Lent: to not have another option. To willingly remove all the other comforts in life and to see relationship for what it is: a consolation. Let this consolation be consoling.