One Wild and Precious Life: It's Time!

I have stalled around and stalled around, waiting for inspiration, waiting for time, waiting for photographs (I have some on my new camera, but haven't uploaded them to the computer yet). There! I uploaded the pictures, and it's time to quit procrastinating. It has been a wonderful and holy Lent, conducting one retreat in Utica, NY which was an amazing experience; then attending a writing retreat in Valle Crucis, NC with Katerina Whitley and my "writing group" (one of three now!).

Valle Crucis Writers' Group

Here we are, with me front and center, and Katerina in red, center rear. She is a wonderful writer and wonderful person, and gave me much encouragement and guidance on my black madonna book. She has a new cookbook, which I've bought and highly recommend: Around a Greek Table. Please consider buying it!

Holy Week was the usual marathon of services: Palm Sunday, Holy Tuesday (Stations of the Cross), Holy Wednesday (Tenebrae), Maundy Thursday (preaching at the Methodist Church noontime service, then our own evening lamb dinner, Communion in the parish hall, then into the church for the stripping of the altar), Good Friday (prayer and meditation 12-3, Liturgy for Good Friday and Communion from the reserved sacrament at 5), Holy Saturday (decorating in the morning, then in the evening, the Great Vigil -- first service of Easter), and the usual Easter Morning service (70 people and 6 kids -- great turnout!). Here are a few pictures of the church decorated for Easter -- I think we always look so beautiful:

St. Raphael's Chancel Bedecked for Easter

Back/Front Doors of Church (Baptismal Font L Foreground)

Aren't those little azalea trees (one on each side of the chancel) amazing, with their braided stems? I just love them.

After that marathon (which is my very favorite week of the whole church year, but exhausting), I spent this past week resting and recovering. Fortunately it was a gentle week at work, and I had lots of reading and studying to do. It was the week for the parish dinner (small turnout; not surprising for the week after Easter), and also the Communion service that I do at Uplands Retirement Village. That's always a pleasure and a privilege. Mostly, I've recovered, I think. Time to make an appointment for a massage, though -- all the time at the computer (5 sermons in 8 days) has taken its toll on my neck and shoulders.

Now I'm attempting to keep Easter for the full Great 50 Days of Easter that Christians celebrate (it's even better than the Twelve Days of Christmas, if you really keep the feast). Spring was so early that the roses on my front porch are blooming, and every time I pass them it's a reminder of Easter and new life! The trees have mostly dropped their blossoms already, and oh, my, the grapes got frostbitten and are shriveled now -- I wonder if new little clusters will appear, or if I will be "grapeless" this year. It has been a cool week, but forecast to be in the 70s today, so I'm hoping to spend some time on my porch.

Roses on the Front Porch

New Front Porch Set w/Beach Umbrella

Doesn't the front porch look like an ice cream parlor? Unfortunately, the traffic noise makes it less pleasant to linger here than on the back porch. But on cool mornings, the direct sunlight feels pretty good anyway!

My Lenten study of the Rule of Benedict went very well. It tied in neatly with Holy Week themes of faithfulness, obedience, self-emptying. Benedicts "12 steps of Humility" also ties in very nicely with the AA Twelve Steps, which I'm working in my recovery from Food Addiction (73 pounds lost now, and working steps 8 and 9 -- making amends -- very humbling, speaking of humility and obedience).

Now I'm seriously involved in planning my Sabbatical, which I plan to take in August, September, and October this year. I'll spend most of the first month in Buffalo -- what did my friend Cheryl call it? -- "squatting" -- at her camping trailer by Lake Erie, writing while she toils away in the city all week. Then I plan to go to Europe for 5 weeks (the time keeps getting shorter -- first it was maybe 8 weeks, then 6-8, then 6, now 5), visiting sites of black madonnas and spending time with them, learning legends, letting them speak to me for my book. On my return I hope to spend a week at Duke Divinity School, writing some more -- or at Valle Crucis in a hermitage there -- can't quite decide yet. The time keeps getting shorter and shorter, and there is so much to plan!

So as always, I do hope to write here more often. It's a really fertile time in my life for ideas and inspiration. I love celebrating the miracle of the resurrection in my own life, and sharing that with you as I live into this one wild and precious life that I continue to discover every single day.

Comments

All I can say is WOW
Love and Hugs

Posted by: Cynthia Freels | April 14, 2012 at 05:55 PM

Soooooo good to hear from you! How long have you been in Tennessee? Thank you so much for the contact.

Posted by: Nancy Craig | April 14, 2012 at 06:49 PM

Sounds like you've got a great year planned, traveling & writing. I hope it all goes well, and hope that your life continues to be filled with inspiration. (You look great, by the way; nice photo)

Posted by: Jack Shifflett | April 17, 2012 at 03:59 PM