As many others are noting,
Ginny had a tragic loss in her community this week.
We are praying for the newly departed Sarah and her child unborn in her womb
*
It is totally understandable that Ginny
will not be able to do the link up today;
but I thought it best to do one
if only to offer my support to Ginny's work and in
memory and honour of her friend Sarah.
What a deep and difficult loss.
*
Ginny has a FB page for her blog and
linked to a support page to give to Sarah's family.
(I don't feel right linking to this for some reason but you
can find it via a simple Google search).
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UPDATED to add this new post by Ginny with a way to support.
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UPDATED to add this new post by Ginny with a way to support.
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I have candles lit for the newly departed Sarah&child in her womb
and for her husband and four living children... and for Ginny.
*
So I am still working on my surprise knitting.
All I can say is that I am almost done
with sewing it together.
*
More on it later.
I am quite pleased with it,
another 'Elizabeth original' that will
never be repeated in exact form. :)
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I am still reading the same two books
but added a newly purchased one
to my reading:
It's been a very well written
engrossing read.
*
Being Orthodox means being concerned with
world events, esp. those of Orthodox countries;
and my husband and I are praying
daily for Russia and Ukraine.
My husband has a set of tapes of a class on Russian history
and one of the things he remembers most is the American
teacher saying to a Russian, asking if he was hated as an American
by the Russian and the Russian said to effect:
what people are responsible for their government?
and I find so far that Serge's Schmemann's book
to have this sort of insight.
The book deals with many things that Russia suffered from
and it shows not only the horrors but the beauty of a people
who underwent them.
*
It helped me get me thinking about the following...
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My husband and I were talking the other day
about the many families devastated by the many horrors of war
and how their homes were destroyed.
We are still making our home and have various
things to put up yet and a few more boxes to unpack.
We often talk of our culture being in utter decline and the many
worrisome things that are happening in our world.
I can't tell you how much this worries me.
Freedom is crumbling in ways that are deeply troubling.
It's like I now understand what a pious Catholic woman once told me
...we are powerless but we have God.
Not meaning we don't have responsibility or some control at least over
our own reactions to things
but that there is so much that we can't do anything about.
But here is what I said to my beloved Subdeacon Husband:
if we had a son and raised him right, true, with beauty that comes
from God, in harmony with all virtue,
and he went to fight in a war that was a good just war
and he died,
would it still not of been worth raising him to be good, right and true?
YES! It would of been worth it all.
It is like that for our lives and our homes.
We need to make them as good, peaceful, beautiful and God-pleasing.
We need to seek to be Christians and grow in
likeness of Christ.
We need to keep asking God to have mercy and protect our lands
and our family lines.
Every night I pray with Mr. Husband to the Mother of God
to protect and save our families,
including all those born to our family lines in the future.
*
What we are doing matters.
What Ginny does matters.
Her making the best for her family, her love of the outdoors,
her family's going to church and seeking to grow
in Christ;
my life as small as it is with Mr. Husband, matters;
our pursuit of beauty, how we both listen only to three things:
~silence, Orthodox music, classical music~
matters.
I hear horrible 'rap music' played in our neighbourhood in
the cars and homes of others;
if you listened to the words alone you would understand
how far our culture has declined.
*
Our lives matter and making a home
that is a place of rest, beauty and for the honour of God,
a home unworthy as it is, to be a place where God is invited
and icons grace the walls.
Creating harmony in life with God matters.
Farming and local choices matter.
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Perhaps this is not my usual yarn along post
but my goal today was to support Ginny and all of us
in doing what we can do:
pray, grieve, making the best homes we can and
just remember that we are loved by God,
our lives matter, our families, our prayer corners
any order and beauty we can bring
is something worth creating.
*
