no salvation in politics

"There are momentous issues facing the nation. Some of them could inflict irreparable damage. But the revolution of 2016 is a manifestation of an unhealthy trend that finds Americans treating politics as if it were the wellspring of happiness and the source of redemption. This is a tragedy. Because, though politicians aren't always dishonest and superficial, they will always disappoint you. We're going to have to find salvation elsewhere."

                                          -  from an article by David Harsanyi in National Review

too soon

The daffodils awoke from their winter rest today;

I guess they didn't hear the news that a bit of snow is on the way.

the agony

This is from the meditation for Wednesday in the fifth week of Lent, by Fr. Ron Rolheiser:

"In the Gethsemane accounts we're told that, right after being strengthened by an angel, Jesus gets up off the ground and walks with courage to face the ordeal that awaits him. His agony and the strengthening he receives within it readied him for the pain that lay ahead. Indeed, at the time of Jesus, the word agony had a double sense. Beyond its more obvious meaning, it also referred to a particular readying that an athlete would do just before entering the arena or stadium. An athlete would work up a certain sweat (agonia) with the idea that this exercise and the lather it produced would concentrate and ready both his energies and muscles for the contest.

The gospel writers want us to have this same image of Jesus as he leaves the Garden of Gethsemane. His agony has brought about a certain emotional, physical, and spiritual lather so that he is now readied, a focused athlete, properly prepared to enter the battle. Moreover, because his strengthening brings a certain divine energy, he is indeed more ready than any athlete."


                                                - from Daybreaks: Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter Week

peeking in

at Sweetie in her room at the bed-and-breakfast.

a real SCOBY

My  SCOBY developed way better than I expected; it looked good!

Relatively speaking.  Now I'm trying to make kombucha with it.

the passion

"Jesus' passion should be understood as passio, passivity, a certain submissive helplessness he had to undergo in counter-distinction to his power and activity. His passion begins in the Garden of Gethsemane, immediately after he has celebrated the last supper. The scriptures tell us that he went out into the garden with his disciples to pray for the strength he needed to face the ordeal that was now imminent.

It's significant that this agony take place in a garden. In archetypal literature (and Scripture, among other things, is this kind of literature), a garden is not a place to pick cucumbers and onions. It is the place of delight, the place of love, the place to drink wine, the place where lovers meet in the moonlight, the place of intimacy. It's Jesus, the lover, the one who calls us to intimacy and delight with him, who sweats blood in the garden.

Jesus' agony is that of the lover who's been misunderstood and rejected in a way that is mortal and humiliating. It's his entry into the darkest black hole of human existence, the black hole of bitter rejection, aloneness, humiliation, and helplessness."


                                                       -  from Daybreak, by Fr. Ron Rolheiser

blooming, and other things

I planted crocuses for the first time in the fall. And they came up!

Why have I never bothered with them before? They're wonderful - such charming little things.

It's been spring-like almost all month - very un-Marchlike. And more things are ready to bloom.

Last year the daffodils were blooming on April 16th.

On Thursday, my freezer bag of vegetable scraps was full, so I made stock. I am ever grateful to Leila for suggesting this - it never occurred to me before!

I used some today for a thin sauce over rice, and yesterday in the mac and cheese.  It'll soon be time to use the scraps for compost, but now I feel torn between both uses for them. I do like to make compost, though.

My current issue of British Country Living gave me big surprise yesterday; I was looking at an article about storage and organizing,

when I saw someone familiar on the page -

the Blessed Mother!  

I can hardly believe it.

Joining Rosie and Leila this week.

about confession

"At a certain point in one's growth, there is no progress without it. The critics...are right in saying that God is not tied to one vehicle as an avenue for the forgiveness of sins. They are wrong, however, when they denigrate the importance of a good private confession.

Simply put, confession is the sacrament of the mature and one grows mature by confessing one's sins."

                                                   -  from Daybreaks, by Fr. Ron Rolheiser

bubble, bubble, but not in trouble

I'm getting very keen on fermenting and have a book called The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fermenting. Monday I mixed up some kimchi and got it into jars. Starting on the third day you're supposed to burp the jars twice daily. This is what I found:

If your finely chopped fermented food is simmering wildly in the jar, don't be alarmed!  As long as it smells okay, it should be fine.

I am not an expert, but this is what I was told. You see, it happened to me once before.

comfort and mercy

Thus says the Lord:

In a time of favor I answer you, 

on the day of salvation I help you; and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, 

to restore the land and allot the desolate heritages, 

saying to the prisoners:

 Come out!

To those in darkness: 

Show yourselves!

Along the ways they shall find pasture,

on every bare height shall their pastures be. They shall not hunger or thirst,

nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;

for he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water.

I will cut a road through all my mountains, 

and make my highways level.

Sing out, O heavens, and 

rejoice, O earth,

break forth into song, you mountains. For the Lord comforts his people

and shows mercy to his afflicted.

Can a mother forget her infant,

be without tenderness for the child of her womb?

Even should she forget,

I will never forget you.

-  from Isaiah, chapter 49

making a SCOBY

or trying to -

It's been a week.  I'll leave it for one more.

"The Principle of Blessing"

This is a meditation for Thursday in the third week of Lent, by Fr. Ron Rolheiser:

"No one can truly bless another without dying. That's what makes a blessing so powerful. Nature prescribes that. Imagine a flower: As a seedling and budding young flower it is essentially selfish, consumed with its own growth. That remains true until it reaches the stage just past its bloom. At that point, it begins to die and in that movement it gives off its seed and is then consumed with giving itself away.

There are myriad lessons in that about mature love, mature sexuality, and mature growth. In the movement from seedling to young plant to bloom to giving off seed in death, we see nature's paradigm for maturity and generativity. In a flower, when full maturity is reached, life becomes consumed in giving itself away at the cost of its own death.

You see this in blessing adults - good mothers, fathers, teachers, clergy, mentors, uncles, aunts, and friends of all kinds. These, the generative adults, do not look like Peter Pan or Tinkerbell (who look like children), nor do they look like movie stars or professional athletes. No. Blessing adults, of both genders, are recognized by their stretch marks, their scars, their physical waning, and by the very fact that they are dying. They are not obsessed with preserving their bloom.

That is nature's lesson. Generativity depends upon a willingness to die and to let go of our seed so that the other can bloom."

                                                 -   from  Daybreaks:  Daily Reflections for Lent and Easter Week

which came first?

Psalm 42

We sang this today at Mass:

As the deer longs for flowing streams,

so longs my soul for You, O God.

My soul does thirst for the living God;

when shall I come to see Your face?

My tears have fed me day and night

while some have said, "Where is your God?"

But I recall, as my soul pours dry,

the days of praise within Your house.

Why do I mourn and toil within

when it is mine to hope in God?

I shall again sing praise to Him;

He is my help - He is my God.

and this is the best version I found, if you want to hear the melody.

winter field, caught while whizzing by

our tenant

I think I've mentioned before that we have a cat shelter on the side of the house. My brother built it years ago for stray cats. There is dry cat food, a heated bed and heated water dish.

A couple of months ago he noticed a tortoiseshell cat using the place. It seemed to move a little slowly and chew slowly. He wondered about it, if it was ailing. So I called Diane, who will feed any cat and names the regulars.

on our front step the other day

It turns our her name is Sweetie, and she's one of Diane's older cats. But Sweetie values peace and quiet, and doesn't get too much of that at Diane's. (Twelve years ago when we took Dolly in, there were fifteen cats at her place, coming and going.)

So, it's not a stray cat motel anymore, but Sweetie's vacation place.

fermenting green beans

The bag of beans was so big, I just stuffed a few into a jar with some salted water.

the Lord is my light, the Lord is my help, the Lord is my salvation

We sang this today at Mass -

The Lord is my light, my help, my salvation.

Why should I fear?

With God, I fear no one.

God protects me all my life.

With the Lord what should I dread?

The Lord is my light

the Lord is my help

the Lord is my salvation.

There is one thing I ask of the Lord that I long for

all of my days with God to be dwelling,

gazing with awe at the beauty of God,

and in wonder look on God's house.

The Lord is my light

the Lord is my help

the Lord is my salvation.

I know I will live to see the Lord's goodness,

now, in this life I'm sure I will see it.

Trust in the Lord, be strong and be brave;

wait in hope for God, our salvation.

The Lord is my light

the Lord is my help

the Lord is my salvation.

cats listening to Beethoven

 on the same chair!

Symphony No. 3 (the Eroica).

The Staatskapelle Berlin,

Daniel Barenboim conducting.

spring around the corner

Even though it's only mid February and temperatures have only been in the thirties

it suddenly seems like spring is around the corner.

the desert

"The desert is the place where we feel our smallness; where, stripped of all that normally buoys us up, we feel how lonely, helpless, fragile, and mortal we really are.

The desert, letting emptiness work in us, is what re-gestates the soul. Emptiness is a womb. It re-molds the soul and lets us be born again, adults still, but now aware. Aware as we once were as small children, that there can be no life and meaning outside of acknowledging our littleness and reaching out, as do infants, to a great providence and a great love outside of us."

                                                          -  Fr. Ron Rolheiser

quiet days

In summer I put kitchen scraps in the composter, but in winter I was lamenting that they are wasted, until I realized I could make vegetable stock with them, and I believe I got that idea on Leila's blog.

The ziploc bag gets filled up quickly; today it came out of the freezer and I made stock. 

To say it smells good is only part of the truth - it's real aromatherapy, I believe. 

I've been working on turning a small but well made (Talbot's! from ebay!) overall-style jumper into an apron.

I'll be glad to have one that's a solid color, as some of my clothing is print.

Henry patiently waited for me in one of the bedrooms while I vacuumed in the hallway.

He's smarter than we give him credit for.

I think I've mentioned before that sometimes, on a picturesque route, I'll just snap photos in the passenger side in the car and see what I get. Here's a small, cute house in the center of town.

Joining Suki and Leila today.

little burrito

being emptied

"'Every tear brings the messiah closer!' This was a refrain in Jewish apocalyptic literature and expressed the belief that a certain quota of tears had first to be shed before any true joy could inhabit us. They understood this mystically, not literally. In order to be filled by God one must first be emptied."

                                                           -  Fr. Ron Rolheiser


"If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."

                                                            -   Luke: 9:23b

"In the story of Cinderella, there is a theology of Lent."

"The name, Cinderella, itself already says most of it. Literally it means 'the young girl who sits in the cinders'. Moreover, as the tale makes plain, before the glass slipper is placed on her foot, before the beautiful gown, ball, dance, and marriage, there must first be a period of being humbled.

The Church taps into this deep well of wisdom when it puts ashes on our foreheads at the beginning of Lent. Lent is a season for each of us to sit in the ashes, waiting while some silent growth takes place within us, and simply being still so that the ashes can do their work in us."

                                                    -  Fr. Ron Rolheiser

"music and cats"

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."

                                                           -   Albert Schweitzer

I could think of a few more, but he was on the right track.

"not knowing"

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how..."

                                                             -  Agnes de Mille,  from Simple Abundance

"marriage is not a penance"

Today during Mass, all the married couples were invited to go into the center aisle and renew their vows of commitment to each other. It was brief but very nice.

Some children carried heart-shaped signs with words and phrases important to remember in maintaining good relationships.  Nancy, who's very artistic, was in charge of this part of it.

a wedding "cake"

There was a "bride", dressed in a real, miniature wedding gown, complete with veil. And she had a  "groom", of course.

You may wonder why this wasn't celebrated next Sunday,  St. Valentine's Day.  Well, Father said that we needed to do it before Lent begins (this Wednesday), because, he said, "marriage is not a penance".  That drew a laugh.

the past few days

I'm joining Rosie and Leila today -

The snowstorm passed through yesterday and when the sun emerged -

beautiful. For a while, the sun shone but the sky was darkish blue - so pretty.

So, I ended up having the whole day off - it wasn't worth opening the library at two when we close early on Fridays anyway. But before I knew that, and when we were just planning to open late, that cozy feeling which snowfalls always bring came over me and I heated up enough almond milk for all my co-workers, added cocoa, brown sugar and some spices.  Put it in two canning jars and wrapped them up so they wouldn't knock against each other.

And then I got the call we were closing.  I'll have to drink it all - my brother can't eat almond. It was a good thought, anyway.

After telling someone yesterday that I don't bother with plants because the cats love sitting on our only sunny windowsill, I came home from the supermarket today with a basil plant.  I just was unable to resist it - organic, and on sale!

I hope I can keep it going till April when I set up the greenhouse.

I just finished the new Jane Austen mystery by Stephanie Barron; I love this series - they're very cleverly done. And that's what I've been up to these last few days.

suddenly white

Yesterday morning the weather man said the storm which was going to miss us, all of a sudden wasn't going to; it was wanting to swerve back our way.  And every ten minutes when he did the next forecast, he marveled at how the computer models were changing. By the minute.

Meanwhile, the library is going to open later, and here I am with beauty out the window and a little extra time at home.

the weather we're having

This was yesterday - I got so warm in the kitchen I had to dig out my sandals. I had windows open!

today was warmer!