ignorance

found here

Ignorance: a state in which a person lacks knowledge

& is unaware of something.

easier said than done

"Dwell not on the thoughts

and shortcomings of others;

instead, seek clarity about your own."

- Buddha

how does an apple ripen?

"God is like the air we breathe.
Perhaps that is why the deeper
we grow in the prayerful awareness
of the Divine presence in our lives,
the less we actually say with words
and the more we simply

breathe and enjoy it.
How does an apple ripen?
It just sits in the sun."

Thomas Merton

God is not Antartica

God is not a continent, like Antarctica, lying off somewhere, inert, without relation to human life till some Scott or Amundsen or Byrd finds him. God is not a mountain peak to which travelers must go and which they climb step by step. God is like the air we breathe or the earth beneath our feet. To discover God is simply to awaken to reality. It is like a plant discovering the sun and the rain that drew it from the earth or like children discovering the parents who gave them birth and love and nurture. Luther A. Weigle

lifetime of love

"Love at first sight
is easy to understand;
it's when two people

have been looking at each other
for a lifetime
that it becomes a miracle."
Amy Bloom


Octavio Ocampo photo from here
what do you see?

prayer of st. brendan

Help me to journey beyond the familiar

and into the unknown.

Give me the faith to leave old ways

and break fresh ground with You.

Christ of the mysteries, I trust You

to be stronger than each storm within me.

I will trust in the darkness and know

that my times, even now, are in Your hand.
Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,

and somehow, make my obedience count for You.

Prayer of St. Brendan, Irish Contemplative - found here
Art by James Christensen found here

Springtime God

"I love the image of a 'Springtime God.' Isn't God always in the growing season with us? Isn't everything that happens in life simply seeding something to come- and isn't all of it God? But if that's true, the question is, then, Are all our thoughts new seeds of life to be pursued? Because, if so, then I am being called on and I am, as usual, reluctant to go."

Joan Chittister, Called to Question, p.188

Before & After

These are photos taken at this weekend's Decorative Concrete Contest in E. Bremerton, WA. This is the structure before Hiday Concrete worked their magic. That is my husband David in the picture - pondering just what had his son gotten them into?

Since this was part of a Horseriding Club they went with a Western theme, replacing the siding with vertical concrete and adding concrete tree trunks. My son, Colin, spent over 50 hours working on this project with his crew.
They won 2 awards - Best Vertical Concrete and Most Artistic use of Concrete. Here is a close up view of the tree & the shelf under the window.
Pretty cool! Don't ya want to touch that tree?

oops!

Life is filled with
many unexpected
twists & turns.

The driver (Chris) is fine,
and the truck is ok...

ikons of christ

"The essence of prayer is to hear
the voice of another, of Christ,
but likewise to hear the voice
of each person I meet
in whom Christ also addresses me.
His voice comes to me in every human voice,
and his face is infinintely varied.
It is present in the face of the wayfarer on the road to Emmaus;
it is present in the gardener speaking to Mary Magdalene,
it is present in my next-door neighbor.

God became incarnate so that we might
contemplate his face in every face.

Perfect prayer seeks this presence of Christ
and recognizes it in every human face.
The unique image of Christ is the ikon,
but every human face is an ikon of Christ,
discovered by a prayerful person."

Catherine de Hueck Doherty

ikon: picture: a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface.

acceptance

"The most
terrifying thing is
to accept oneself
completely."

Carl Jung

why are we so afraid of ourselves?

Candy of Heaven

My 7 year old granddaughter Lydia came into my office yesterday carrying a large wooden box that her cousin David had recently given to her. It's a very old box, shaped like a bible, with a shellacked picture of Jesus inside the lid. She carefully placed the box on my desk, opened it slowly & pulled out a small golden bag that usually holds plastic coins. Lydia then said that she wanted to share communion with me. How could I refuse that request?

So I held out my hands and she dug into her golden bag and pulled out an easter candy and placed it into my hand saying, "The Body of Christ, the Candy of Heaven"..........

Glory Be!

photo: Candy from Heaven

pure foolishness

Three fools died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question.

St. Peter asks the first fool, "What is Easter?" He replies, "Oh, that's easy! It's the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and are thankful..."

"Wrong!," replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second fool the same question, "What is Easter?" The second one replies, "Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree,exchange presents, and celebrate the birth of Jesus."

St. Peter looks at the second fool, shakes his head in disgust, tells her she's wrong, and then peers over his glasses at the third fool and asks, "What is Easter?" The third fool smiles confidently and looks St. Peter in the eyes, "I know what Easter is." "Oh?" says St. Peter, incredulously. "Easter is the Christian holiday that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper and Jesus was later deceived and turned over to the Romans by one of his disciples. "The Romans took him to be crucified and he was stabbed in the side, made to wear a crown of thorns, and was hung on a cross with nails through his hands. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder."

St. Peter smiles broadly with delight. Then she continues, "Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out...and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

from the Episcopal Bookstore website.
One has to wonder though, if these would be considered plausible answers on The Tonight Show's Jaywalking segment?

Alleluia!

Gethsemane

The grass never sleeps.

Or the roses.

Nor does the lily have a secret eye

that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me.

But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe

on its feet,and it sings, have you noticed,

with its whole body,

and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me.

And maybe the stars did,

maybe the wind wound itself into a silver tree,

and didn't move, maybe

the lake far away,

where once he walked as on a blue pavement,

lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not

keep that vigil, how they must have wept,

so utterly human, knowing this too

must be a part of the story.

Source: from Mary Oliver's book Thirst
Art: Praying at Gethsemane by He Qi

Maundy Thursday

being sick during Holy Week - the best week of the liturgical calendar - is not what i planned....but i am and so i invite you to read last year's post on Maundy Thursday....

under the weather

Alas, I have been battling the crud for several days now

- hence no posting....

hoping to be back soon. Love, Roberta

56

Some interesting items regarding the number 56: In the year 56 AD Fiacha Finnfolaidh, high King of Ireland was killed.
The word "Yeah" was used 56 times in Nirvana's song "lithium".
Joe DiMaggio had 56 base hits in 1941. Is this still a record?
56 men signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
There are 56 counties in Montana.
Shirley Temple wore 56 curls in her hair. They were set by her mother who counted them.
56 is the atomic number of Barium.
56 years ago today, I was born on the 3rd largest island in Europe.
Since 56 is a twice perfect number, it is itself a semiperfect number.

So here's to a semiperfect 56th year! For myself and anyone else celebrating a birthday this year - May we remember that our times are in God's hand and that they are to be treasured each and every day. And with God's help may we grow in wisdom, grace, and love over these next 12 months. Thank you Lord for this amazing gift of life. May we see You in everyone we meet. Amen.

And a blessed Palm Sunday to all!

taking out the trash

Here is one 4-year-old's take on the

word "trespasses" from The Lord's Prayer:

"And forgive us

our trash baskets
as we forgive those
who put trash

in our baskets."

taken from The Episcopal Bookstore's newsletter.....

how quickly my heart looks like this when
I stop emptying it through forgiving,
with God's help.
(and imagine the smell!)

Centraal Station Antwerpen gaat uit zijn dak!

The world just needs more of this! I'm feeling yucky today and this so lightened my spirits! May it do the same for you.

Sinead Fleming

My amazing niece Sinead has had a stellar senior year so far at Flintridge Academy in Southern California. MVP for her school in soccer plus MVP for her league AND she was just named Soccer Player of the Year by the Pasadena Star News for the entire San Gabriel valley (and that's a big valley) - a wonderful honor! Read about her and her team here. Her grandfather also receives a loving tribute in it. Dad has had a lot of press since he left us! Go Dad! And another great article about how my sister Rebecca & another single mother, helped their children reach their dreams can be found here- Yeah Becky!

Hey Sinead! Get that dirty soccer ball away from your face. You have no idea where it's been! Congrats Superstar!

seeing beyond illusion

The Baal Shem tells of a king who was a master at creating illusions. "The Glory of God is to conceal a thing (Proverbs 25:2). And while he wanted very much to be close to his people, he wanted even more for his people to want to be close to him. So he devised a plan. He built around himself a great castle-illusion. There were illusory walls and doorways and towers. There were chambers and courtyards and passageways. And in front of each one the king placed illusory treasures of every kind. Bags of money, trips to Florida, and having a beautiful body. Then he proclaimed throughout the land that he wished to be found. And all the people came to the illusory castle, but one by one they gave up searching for the king and settled instead for some illusory treasure. Until, at last, the king's son came. He saw that it was all an illusion and that his father was there in plain view, sitting on a folding chair in the middle of a great, open field.
Lawrence Kushner, Source: Honey From the Rock (taken from inward/outward)
image from here