little systems

 I'm back to making bread; it seems, along with soup, a Lenten thing to have. 

Here's the recipe  The soup I made today was potato leek - so delicious! Here's the recipe, and I realized from reading this old post that I forgot the thyme. It was still good!

My skirt needs adjusting; it's too full, which would be pretty on some, but I like a little less of it.

Our little systems have their day;
They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

-  Tennyson

bears, skirts and dinner

"On this mountain [God] will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations; he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces; The reproach of his people he will remove from the whole earth; for the Lord has spoken."

                                                              -   Isaiah 25:7-9

Meanwhile, tomorrow is the feast of St. Patrick; I'm working, so we had the dinner today. The crockpot did much of the work.

The cabbage was in another pan.

I've been reading "The Bears and I" by Robert Franklin Leslie. Published in 1968, the author is a young man in the north woods of Canada. Are there any of these type of men left? Can someone live like that in this day and age?  Anyway, he has to "adopt" three motherless cubs, and he tells the story so well; it's a page-turner!  I had brought the book home for my mother years ago and it was such a favorite with her, I'd gotten her a copy to keep. After she died I ended up letting it go, as I figured I'd never read it, but at work last week it came across the desk and I was suddenly interested. It's hard to put down! Bears are more like us than I'd realized. If you like animal stories, I very much recommend it.

"A wild bear grows to maturity and stays healthy for his twenty-five or thirty years on a vigorous program of physical exercise and diet unparalleled for any animal of his weight. I've watched both black and grizzly bears swim across the lake three miles wide, then climb over a mountain on the other side when easy alternative routes were available to them. I have seen black bears gallop down a mountainside and ascend a 200-foot fir without even breaking their speed - climbing by throwing their arms and legs around the trunk like a pole-climber - until they were near the top of the tree."

                                                -  The Bears and I

I saw this image on pinterest and saved it. I've got a sweater this very color, although not a turtleneck and not cropped. But that's all right. I have black suede maryjanes and I could copy the look well enough. So I poked around online and found some quilting cotton that is almost exactly this pattern.

I made a casing for an elastic waist, put in wide pleats, and it is machine basted. If i hadn't been so busy with the corned beef dinner, I could have made more progress. But it's an easy design to make and won't take much longer.

"To a bear, loss of face represents genuine calamity. Within his local society, withdrawal from any struggle most generally incurs loss of pecking rights - the established wilderness protocol of who has the right to clobber whom."

                                                  -  from The Bears and I

love transforms

 O God, your love for the world transforms darkness into light, hatred into love,
 and persecution into peace through the gift of your only Son.
 Make us true disciples in every circumstance of daily life, through Christ our Lord.
 Amen.

-  from Magnificat, March 2026

darkness and light

 Well, the split in my thumb is healed, and I stitched up the opening on the chair cushion. It was awkward using the curved needle, but not painful! It was not digging into my finger!

As I said, I had barely enough to cover it, but it's attached now, and I will figure out a patch to go over that area. This is on the back part of the cushion, so it won't be glaringly obvious.

It was so dark and dreary today, the cats slept most of it - it actually snowed, which would normally mean nothing in mid-March after the winter we've had, except that two days ago it was up near eighty; it was sunny, and everyone's spirits were lifted by it. Yesterday was also nice, but here we are back again. However, there is greening going on outside -

Yes, it's coming. 

in morning sun, from a different day

"Saint John of the Cross says our souls are like windows. Divine light is always there, beating on the panes, but often the panes are dirty so that the light cannot penetrate. Our task is very simple - not always easy, mind you, but basically simple! We do not have to make the sun shine. We do not have to create our own suns. All we have to do is let the sun in, and we do this by cleaning our windows. When they are free from every stain, the pure light pours in. We become like the Mother of God, who 'has this one work to do / Let all God's glory through' (Gerard Manley Hopkins).

Then the window - which is still there - is all one with the light, and in its own way has become light and light-giving. What is needed is great generosity, selflessness, trust, and patience.

True holiness - and remind yourself of this over and over again - has to do with very ordinary things: courage, self-denial, love for others, truthfulness, kindness, contentment with what God sends, dutifulness.... In short, all that matters, anytime, anywhere, is a strong, resolute cleaving to God."

                                                              -  Sister Mary David Totah, O.S.B.

a divine economy

 "Most of us are under pressure, external and internal, to do everything, be good at everything, be accountable to everyone for everything! It is not so. In the divine economy each of us has a particular grace, gift and devotion. Finding out what that is, and learning how to be guilt-free about not doing everything else, may be part of what our Lenten journey is for."

                                       -  Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

looking ahead

 We're in for some very springlike temperatures this week. The snow has greatly receded, the grass is showing itself, along with puddly places and mud. I can see my raised beds. But there are still high snow mounds here and there.

I've been working on re-covering a chair pad which sits on the rocking chair. Annie slashed it when she was little, and ever since I've kept things in the chair to discourage them from even thinking about it. But I had some corduroy - barely enough - to try and make it nice again. 

See the pins? That is where it doesn't quite reach enough to enclose the pad. I knew it would happen; I am hand-stitching it to the pad (and the previous cover, which is not removeable), and then I hope to take a long scrap to attach it like an applique over that section to cover it. Unless I decide to make a more obvious patch from another fabric scrap that grabs my fancy - we'll see. But stitching the edge the other day to the pad was very difficult, because the needle is straight and the pad is curved and stiff: it's comfortable to sit on, but not squishy, if you know what I mean. I actually have some curved needles, but they're very thick and more suitable for leather or whatever. I found some quilting ones on Amazon, though. That will make it much easier. (When my sore thumb gets over pushing that needle through two days ago!)

The "quilted" places didn't have buttons, they were just sewn, so I just sewed them, but then I had the thought to use embroidery floss to "tie" them as you sometimes do in quilting. I think that will look cute, and I can just go over those areas.

 And then I'll still have to keep the cats off it. 

a thirsty God

 Jewish and Christian traditions of spirituality speak of the Word of God as the living water whereby the spirit is cleansed and refreshed. A quick sip - an occasional prayer snatched from the jaws of a relentlessly busy world - is better than no water at all, but roots that grow deep draw the water of life by frequent prayer. This living water produces a healthy tree that gives fruit to all who come.

                                                               - Magnificat, March 2026

Vincenzo Catena, Christ and the Samaritan Woman

"We see God begging for a drink of water from a human being, and a sinful one at that.... Indeed, he is a thirsty God, a tired God, a God looking for the companionship and dialogue of one of his creatures. How could it be that God is needy? Christ the one who by nature has need of nothing outside himself has nonetheless voluntarily made himself needy, but only in order to communicate to us the life that is his. This action of making himself needy out of love may well be the greatest and most astounding work of his omnipotence."

                                                        -  Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

transformation

 "Lent is a time of transformation. As we gaze into the dark faith of prayer upon the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, we are transformed into his likeness."

                                              -  Magnificat, March 2026

"Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light."

                                            -  Matthew 17:1-2