What a wonderful thing it is, to know someone in one context and then see them in a totally different role.
Last week I spent time with a man who I know as a priest, a military officer and a friend but I’ve never seen him with his family.
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This title of this blog post makes me smile. My father, ever the master punster, would heartily approve. I’m sure he’s grinning from his eternal resting place.
I visited a sheep ranch in South Dakota yesterday and if there ever was a more enjoyable interpretation of variation, I’m not sure what it would be!
These faces! They just couldn’t be any cuter, each animal full of it’s own personality, and each one a variation on the theme.
Ummmm….yeah…..
For several years I’ve had a friend trying to convince me to go on a silent retreat and so far I’ve managed to always find a reason to decline.
I’m just not good at that silence thing.
I seldom exist in it. When I’m home alone I have the television on in the morning, music the rest of the day. When I’m walking I’m saying my daily prayers or listening to NPR or classical music and if I don’t have that going in my ears, then frankly, I’m “taking” to myself….that voice in my head that keeps a running dialog with myself about what needs to be done at home, what’s going on with my family and friends….you know, that voice that’s always trying to solve the world’s problems.
Even in church….one would think I could appreciate the silence, but at mass I’m singing and listening to the readers and priest speak in addition to all that talking to God that’s going on in my head.
Honestly, most of the time there exists a cacophony in my head.
However, last August I visited an amazing place in South Dakota that’s all about silence. This sign greets you at the entrance to Pathways Spiritual Sanctuary:
Hush,
This is a holy place,
A sacred place.
Where the visions dwell,
Where the dreaming of a race began.
Someone’s god has stepped here,
slept here,
knelt here,
dwelt here,
spoken here of life,
of death,
of holy things.
When you come,
come softly,
walk softly,
talk softly.
Be mindful of the dreams.
This is a sacred place.
Hush.
~Jane Yolen
If ever there was a place where I would welcome and perhaps find true silence, this would be a good place to start.
It might be a while before I’m ready for that retreat though…..
When I traveled to Virginia last week to see my new grandson I was delighted to find this scene outside the window of my hotel room in Alexandria.
I’m pretty sure one of my first photo shoots back in 1976 when I was a freshman in college was in a cemetery. I still hold a fascination for them….for the serenity I find there, for the untold stories of the people interred on the grounds, and visually, for the beauty that happens to stone and memorials when time has weathered them.
A bonus, on the first morning I was there, was the fog that shrouded this cemetery, adding yet another aspect of “weathering” to my experience.
What a miracle and life-changing event it is, to have a baby.
Morrison Lee was born in the very early hours of the morning on January 4th. The first-born son of a first-born son of a first-born son.
His parents just turned 35. They’ve had full lives, demanding jobs, and live in a one-bedroom apartment so this particular period of growth in their lives will definitely be an adjustment, but what a wonderful adjustment it will be!
After posting my personal picks for my favorite Instagrams of 2017 in my last blog post I got curious about my own choices as opposed to the ones that got the most “likes” on the Instagram app and the most “likes” on my Timeline. Knowing that the viewers are quite different in both places I thought it would be interesting to see where opinions overlapped and here are the results.
First up, just as a reminder, here are my personal choices, my favorites from each month of the year:
This set, not by month but by the most “likes” on the Instagram app, in order of popularity:
I thought it was interesting that the most popular one was an Instagram of Instagrams!
And now, the most popular ones from my Facebook Timeline, these picked by people who are connected to me more personally than a lot of my Instagram followers, also in order:
As you can see, a few overlap but the one that I felt was the most significant when I had to identify what I thought was my most meaningful photo of 2017, the one of Maddie praying for her parents during Hurricane Harvey, is the one that showed up in all three places.
Seems all three sets of observers were on the same page with that image.
Okay, picking just one favorite was just too difficult so I decided to choose one Instagram from each month. Even that was hard. Apparently June was a good photo month.
But I did narrow it down and perhaps tomorrow I would decide on a completely different twelve. Heck by the time I get to the end of this posting they would also be a completely different set but for now, at 9 a.m. on this Wednesday morning on one of the last days of December, these are my favorites.
I’m afraid of heights so this week’s photo challenge didn’t inspire much in me.
However, I am a fan of details and it was bothering me that all my upstairs windows had candles in them expect the one at the very top of the house in the attic. One would think that wouldn’t be so hard to rectify but it’s a two story attic and it required me to ascend this:
After which I had to navigate this expanse, the last ten feet or so being without wide boards to walk on. My over-active fear factor was great, imagining myself falling through the insulation to whatever awaited me below.
His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
When I’m overwhelmed at this time of year I gravitate to the nativity scenes I’ve put up in my home, often stopping to contemplate them at the end of a long day when the lights are low and instrumental Christmas music is playing softly in the background.
Each of them is very different but this is the one I’m most drawn to.
The manger itself was designed and built by my Uncle Lou, which makes it really special and I love the simplicity of the Willow Tree figurines, each of them infused with calm and reverence, all of them focused on the baby.
All is serene.
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