Simple Beauty

I have fallen head over heels in love with the beauty of Illinois prairie-lands.  Don't get me wrong, my true and best love is Wisconsin.  I love her rolling hills, forest and the glacial formations.  Truly, Wisconsin is a gem.   But, the prairies have taken this woodlands girl and said, "I know we will not be your true love, but why not love the one you're with. There's always room for one more."  Since I had nothing better to do, I fell for the beauty of the prairies.  They are majestic and quiet.  These are not obvious beauties, they are subtle and worm their way into the soul.  I look out on a prairie and I am awed of their simple, essential beauty.  They give nothing more and nothing less that what is needed to make the heart sing.

I will take a moment to speak to the skies of the prairies.  I have never seen skies like this - open free and blue!    Sometimes the skies just take my breath away, and I look out and think anything is possible here.  The skies are open, and so my soul opens, seeking new possibilities and new beauty.

I am most grateful to be here.  All around me I am reminded to seek the simple and beautiful way.  I am reminded open my heart to love, and even make room for new adventures - ones I  never in my wildest dream thought I would ever dream.  I am grateful to be here.

Power of Love

Love never ends.  I believe there is always room for one more in your heart to love.  I believe that when you love someone, in some way, you are saving them and yourself from the storm that buffets us in this life.  Love becomes the safe haven.  Love nurtures a weakened soul, and body (since we are one, body, spirit, intellect). I believe that we are created to meet each other where we are, and love each other knowing full well how inadequate our love is compared to the Love that is eternal.  Yet, we love, and learn to love more in each day of our lives. Love is an act not an emotion.  Love is doing something for someone when we don't want to because we know the other person needs something  and we can give it. Love is giving what we can, and not knowing the results.  We are all members one to another just by the simple fact that we are all human. Let us love one another.  Let us exorcise love in all things.  The more we practice, the better we can love.  Love hopes all things. 

Pascha Eggs

I love decorating eggs every year.  I love that each egg is different from any other egg I have ever made.  I love that I create eggs for the moment, for the feast and that each moment and each Pascha is unlike the next.  These little creations, little works of art that last so briefly, reminds us that each moment is but a gift and a thing of beauty that passes away to the next.  On Pascha, we are reminded of this passing through this life, and into the next.  May we remember to love the moments we are given as beautiful works of the Lord.

Dead Already

Dead already.  I have been thinking about this for a few weeks.  We, as Christians say that we have been crucified and buried with Christ at baptism.  We die Him in a death like His and  when we come up out of the waters and  we are live in Christ.  We live no longer for our own petty desires, but to strive to live as Christ on earth, to be Christ-bearers in the world.  If, in fact, we are dead to this world, to our sins, and alive in Christ why then do we seek out other things to distract us from the Gospel, from the life-giving, love creating words that we love one another just as Christ loved us?  I think of the Band of Brothers episode when a solider was so scared he could not move and many other soldiers came to him to tell him how to behave in a war zone.  Finally, a soldier who had displayed amazing courage, told him that he was looking at it wrong, and that he was already dead.  Then he could go do the work of a soldier.  I wonder if we think of ourselves as already dead what we could achieve in truth and love.  Would we be afraid to reach out to our brother who suffers if we already knew we did not have to worry about keeping everything together?  If we were not afraid of losing our home and security, would we reach out to those all around us who suffer in silence or right out loud? As we approach the death and resurrection of Christ this weekend, as we travel under that winding sheet and  and kiss the gospel, maybe we can remember that we are already dead, and alive in Christ.  If we are alive in Christ, let us embrace each other even those who hate us and forgive all by the resurrection of Christ.

I'm So Fired Up

Tomorrow is the big one......It is our first big time presentation in front of folks I don't know.  Having said that, I can't wait.  I have always been like that.  Opening night could not come soon enough as far as I was concerned.  I always just wanted to be on the stage doing the thing.  For those who know me, this might be a strange thing to find out about me.  I have a softer voice than most folks.  I always worked on projection of my voice.   I know I can have volume, but making it work has sometimes been a challenge for me. My neighbor in Hamilton says that everyone in the neighborhood knew I could be loud.  Having kids will do this to a person. At any rate, tomorrow, I get to stand and speak about things dear to me, and things I know are important for folks to hear.  No one wants to talk about death.   The industry knows it, and has made it their business to keep folks from exorcising their rights under the law.  In Illinois, the industry has lobbied to have the law change in 2009 so that we no longer have a say as to who can handle our body in death.  That is so not right.  It is so wrong,  I wonder why there are not riots in the street, but then again......no one wants to talk about death.  They can do what they want and most of us follow along because we don't know we can do something different.  So, I am fired up. 

No Words

Just a Word About Lent

Sin.....A big word, and in some circles, a very bad word.  It's a word that has suffered from popularity and from disuse.  I like the Orthodox view that sin as us missing the mark.  We are off target and need to aline the site better, perhaps, to hit it straight on.  In Lent we are asked to repent, and try hitting the target better, which might be why we are to give alms more, and try loving those around us more.  Lent is like a little school for us to learn to rely on God, and love our brother more.  We have to wake up to the truth and action of the Gospel.  Lent is just the time to start moving toward that target.  We get all our tools ready: fasting, prayer, alms giving, and we go out to love.

Preparing for Great Lent

Each year, I am struck by the wisdom of the church for easing us into Great Lent.  We are not thrown into it without preparation and warning.  Sometimes I think that Zacchaeus Sunday wakes us from the sleep and laziness of the festivals of the incarnation.  We move from the party time into a wake up Sunday were we are reminded that the Lord will come, and maybe unexpectedly.  I love Zacchaeus Sunday.  I start to pay attention.

Not only are we warned that we are entering the Great Lent by a series of "Wake-Up Sundays"  that culminates in to the Expulsion from the Garden,  where we had better wake up and start the great exercise, but we enter also train ourselves physically.  We start to prepare to fast, by having the fast free week, then a week were we dip into the fast just a bit.  We then have the meat free week, and finally The Fast begins.  As I said last year, we begin where we end, in the glory of the resurrection of Christ.  How wise it all is to me.  The deck is stacked, we are to all end in the light of the Risen Lord, so there's no need to despair.  The Fast is never to be a chore, but a joyful preparation to receive the joy of Pascha. 

The work of The Fast is so much more than controlling the mouth.  I, for one, find controlling what I put in it and what comes out of it to be a great exercise.   I like to shoot off my mouth from time to time, what my mother calls being smarty pantsy.  It is a great temptation for me.  The other part of The Fast is to pray more and give alms.  We are to let go of our egos, and turn toward The Living God for the fullness of life.  That requires us to love those he has given us in our life.  (Another task I find difficult.)  Sure, I find loving those who are a delight to be easy.  Those who challenge me in love are those I have difficulty because for one reason or another they threaten some part of me.  I am not asked to love those who are easy.  I am asked to love my enemies.  What a better time to practice this than in the season of The Great Fast where I can put away the extra distracting things, focus on what I am doing to pollute the world and make an effort to repent and change, and not for myself alone but for my brother. Praying for those I find difficult, so my heart is changed toward them might be the only action I can do at first.  Sometimes it takes awhile to turn the heart to flesh.  God willing, it will.  So wise is the Church.  How hard is it to enter the season of fasting without first preparing for it! I am grateful for the wisdom to give us a chance to prepare and enter into the joy of the fast awake and willing.

The Begining of the Begining

And then we enter Lent.  Many might remember the last Lent.  Most might not remember for us it was the Lent that wasn't.  We spent all our time at the tomb, and very little time at the Feast.  David's mother's household things were packed and moved on Holy Saturday.  I remember standing on our back porch in Hamilton at almost Midnight and felt the hush of Pascha. We went the next morning to the Western Rite Monastery where we sang Western Easter hymns.  This year we enter Lent, and we are in a totally place: physically, spiritually and emotionally.  Every Lent and Pascha brings a particular gift.  I look forward to the journey to arrive on the Holy Day Without Evening of the Pascha of our Lord where we remember that we belong to each other through His Death and Resurrection.  I don't just mean those who believe,  I mean all mankind.  Such and awesome journey were we learn again to rely on the Lord.  Blessed beginning of the beginning to you all and remember this week we eat meat on Friday.