Pascha

I can hardly believe that I went the whole of Lent without posting! Lent was amazing. I kept the fast for the most part which is nothing less than the grace of God. I loved the focus that Lent provided my ADD brain and not just for myself but for the whole church. Its wonderful to know that everyone else is struggling and praying and working toward the same thing you are. I tried to go to at least one weekday service each week during Lent and that helped a lot. And by the end of Lent I was noticing that my joints/fibromyalgia hurt much less too. After Pascha and the return to "normal" food I have discovered that I am allergic (or at least sensitive to) dairy products. Enough so that I am going to continue fasting from them just because I feel terrible when I eat them now.

Pascha was incredible. Daughter #2 went with me which was great. What a party! I've never been a part of such a celebration before!

Today is the Sunday of the Myrhh Bearing Women and is the liturgical anniversary of my first Divine Liturgy. I was remembering today how lost and overwhelmed I felt at first. So much has changed. I no longer feel lost but cradled.

Lent Approaches

Its been awhile since I posted. Bad blogger. No real reason for not posting other than life.
Lent is fast approaching ("fast" approaching, get it? ha ha) ...my first Lent as an Orthodox Christian. I want to make this time as spiritually fruitful as I can so I will be trying hard to observe the fast and increase my prayer and Bible reading. I will be writing about my efforts during the next few weeks. The fast will be particularly challenging for me so I plan to write out a menu each week and will post it here. There will likely be a lot of fast-related posts not because I think the fast is more important than the other Lenten observances but because I want to grow in this area and the whole subject of food is difficult for me.
Ready or not, here I go......

Thy Nativity O Christ Our God

Ice Ice Baby

This past week Oklahoma has been devastated by an ice storm that has caused a power outage covering most of the state. In my small town, the power went out about 5:00am last Sunday morning. Many states have sent utility crews to our rescue, God bless them, but currently there are still around 300,000 homes without electricity, including mine. I'll post more when I can get internet access but here is a picture of my garage.

Hundred Dollar Holiday

Just finished this little book. Its been around awhile but has some good explanations as to how our society's Christmas observance has evolved into the commercial chaos it is today. The author suggests that we limit our financial involvement to $100. Not a bad goal.

An excerpt:

"The Christmas we now celebrate grew up at a time when Americans were mostly poor, mostly lived with extended families, mostly worked with their hands and backs......But more and more that old Christmas finally feels played out. We’ve changed too much, and if we feel harassed by Christmas, that’s why. Its not that Christmas has changed, it’s that we have. We’re like fifty-year-olds going to Daytona Beach for spring break. Maybe we can remember why it seemed fun once, but frankly we’d rather sleep at night."

That's probably the best explanation I've ever heard!

The author goes on to ask.....

"Whose birthday is it anyway? Good question..... We know how to behave at birthday parties; We know someone else is the center of attention, and that the pleasure comes from putting the spotlight on them. And yes, you get to eat cake, too, and ice cream, and maybe there’s a little bag of treats to take hom. But you’re celcbrating someone else. That’s what the fun is all about."

Christmas Past

This picture was probably taken in 1959. The handsome young man in the middle is my father.
The little girl on the right is me, age 3 years. The little girl on the left is Susan (Susie to me) Ferrell. Our dad's had taken us to a downtown Oklahoma City department store to see the Christmas displays. Susie was a year younger than me so she was around 2. Our parents were good friends back to their pre-child days and my sisters and I spent a lot of time with Susie and her sister Cindy who came along a couple of years later.

Fast forward a few years and this is Susie all grown up

Wasn't she beautiful? And smart too....she became a lawyer and worked for the federal government. I named my favorite stuffed animal "Susie Teddy" after her. She liked Ringo, I liked Paul. When she heard that my mother had given birth to TWO babies (my sisters are twins) she wanted to know if she could have one of them. She loved cats and dancing and was so fun to be around.

She died in the Oklahoma City bombing.

And I hate that the tragic way she died threatens to eclipse all the things about her that were so wonderful. Its just wrong.

So Susie, you have not been forgotten. Who you are and what you lived for lives on in the memories of all of us who loved you. Your life defines you not your death.

May your memory be eternal.

My First Prosphora

This Sunday I will be offering the Holy Bread in honor of my daughter Rachel and in memory of my mother Virginia both of whom were born on Nov. 17.

This is my first solo attempt at baking the bread. Our priest's wife Khouria Claudia, gave a group of us, mostly converts, a workshop in bread baking a few weeks ago. I made a practice batch last weekend and it was awful! A woman at my church had also loaned me a DVD on holy bread making which I watched this morning to refresh my memory. I think this batch was much better. I could at least see the seals this time! (just not very well in this picture!)