Monday, April 01, 2013

Monday, third week of Lent


Our daffodils were beautiful but are no longer...
the last one,
when I woke, was withered. 

As did our tulips.
*
It was a busy weekend;
this morning I woke early
feeling like a cold was brewing;
I made tea and tried to be calm.
The idea of being sick again
when I am still not back to full strength
was rather upsetting.
*
So being careful today.
Drinking tea, resting.
*
Mr. Husband and I had a good
but varied weekend.
Trying to restore my old hard-drive from my old laptop.
The main thing I don't have yet is
most of my pictures from this year and 2012.
Somehow a lot of my older pictures showed up today.
It's all a mystery.
I am really hoping to recover my Jan-Feb-early March pictures
of this year;
all the others I believe are backed up on one of our portable
backup devices but I failed to save the most
recent pictures,
having no foresight that one day my laptop's monitor would
quite working without warning.
*
We made it to our far away church.
I knit as we go ~ over an hour each way ~ it can be tiring.
*
We used up the last of our tall paraffin prayer candles.
We have switched to a small oil lampada now
and changed the kitchen icon corner a little.

Same icons,
just a small rearranging. 

I love this icon of the Mother of God
Joy of All Who Sorrow
very much.
 
Some great posts to be found:
this one on love and fear ~ I could really relate to
the struggle of fear in it ~ a war on
anxiety is still on an on-going thing for me.
*
This one letting us know that Edith Schaffer has died.
I did have her book on L'Abri;
not sure if I still do,
but I remember it well, a hard cover, crinkly dust jacket;
I remember reading it as a teen in my old bedroom with
sunshine peering in the dusty windows.
My memory of the book is that it was written
with a sense of constant movement and a lot of
enthusiasm.
*
I did not know that she had written one on homemaking:
sounds like one that I would enjoy reading.
*
I am finishing re-reading a book by Madeline L'Engle.
Am missing my Ottawa community.
Really want to get better and stronger soon ~
it is hard for me to be at home so much
without a lot of interaction from others in person;
am thankful for blogs and emails...
*
Was such a blessing to see so many from my far-away
church community;
got some great knitting talk in!
it is crazy to see how things go on in every one's lives;
kids going off to college;
people getting married;
it all goes on so constantly;
one kid at church in a few short months is taller than me;
no longer the young boy I met when Mr. Husband and I
were dating and I came to NJ for the first time.
*
When I go back to Ottawa the changes in the kids
are even more noticeable.
I miss the kids.
I made chocolate chip cookies for them for Pascha for the last few years.
I feel sad that I will not be there with them,
big basket in hand,
with everyone happy and milling about after the Pascha service and
the blessing of the baskets.
I try not to be homesick...
*
I really want to keep on with my chocolate chip cookie tradition at
my new parish... but I know each time that I wanted
to do something like this in my new life,
I got sick...
*
One of my friends who married and moved said she was
sick a lot the first year and then it got better.
*
Yet, we seek to make progress.
It can be hard to be patient with one's self but
God will not leave us.
*
Ultimately,
I must look beyond and learn to be a Christian.
I mean this quite literally.
There is another way to live that I read about and
at times see in holy people
but have yet to live out in my life like I have seen.
A sermon that our priest in our far-away church
gave yesterday on the day of
St. Gregory Palamas spoke of this:
we are such infants in the faith, mere rank beginners.
*
I still need to learn to live in the reality of what
the Gospel brings us:
PASCHA.
*
Pascha ~ Easter ~ is about Christ.
About His Resurrection.
*
Easter is not merely the beginning of Spring in this world
but the renewal of the whole cosmos in Christ.
Pascha is the Resurrection of Christ.
Pascha is the undefeated reality and hope we have a Christians:
Christ KILLED DEATH.
*
Indeed it is possible for a Christian to say now
that there is
no death
even when things look the grimmest.
*
This short (less than 2 minutes) video speaks of this:
in Christ
there is no death.

2 comments:

Kassianni said...

wishing you a blessed Lent my friend. health and joy.

elizabeth said...

thank you so much Victoria...