tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85500585661594438982024-02-23T03:44:40.888-05:00CyganeriaA journal on art, faith, and the overwhelming importance of beauty.Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.comBlogger496125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-39365875497800991812015-05-25T11:57:00.000-04:002015-05-25T11:57:35.939-04:00Art, Artists, and Patrons Of..<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEY_gcg36Tueo-NOIZJiiw48JIDNUN9H-apneRUsc-mE-aG4XJ4H1eD4PW3se7hwaoIXzhkycTOeTc-ibXYZG1cyXP2_1nr5A9cn0AWjAxIbaG60IXn867TO0kjkeOn09zMW1UpsU6pEY/s1600/DSCN1145.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEY_gcg36Tueo-NOIZJiiw48JIDNUN9H-apneRUsc-mE-aG4XJ4H1eD4PW3se7hwaoIXzhkycTOeTc-ibXYZG1cyXP2_1nr5A9cn0AWjAxIbaG60IXn867TO0kjkeOn09zMW1UpsU6pEY/s320/DSCN1145.JPG" width="290" /></a><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I don't consider myself an artist...I write, I make my house pretty, I used to craft lovely pots on a wheel and burn them into something lasting. Now I craft tiny people, and the days that pass us by.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> <i> "To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i> ~ ~Henry David Thoreau</i><br /><br />True enough, but it doesn't make me an artist, not really. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I believe in art. I believe that "beauty will save the world," that it <i>has</i> saved the world, in fact, because Christ is Beauty, and Beauty is Christ. And so I believe that both art and the artists who create it are worthy of my support. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Like all of us, I'm limited. Limited financially as I try to spend within our means to feed and clothe and nourish our family; limited spatially in that I have one room, 24 feet in diameter..about 75 feet totally of wall space, most of which is covered in tall dressers, bookcases, cupboards, and especially Icons.<br /><br />Most importantly, though, I'm limited by my own judgment. I support <i>artists. </i>Co-creators of beauty. I determinedly pass over <i>artistes - </i>'throwbacks to the disease of Shellyism' (in the words of Kathleen Norris ), or stagnating 'talents' who have never developed a voice of their own. That last category which gives me pause though. I want to support them. I want to help them find a voice, a style, a medium that truly speaks for them. But I don't have the time or the money. I can't really be a 'patron of arts' so much as I can just be a tiny signpost on the path the artist has to walk. Saying softly - and I hope gently - "not this way.." or else "almost"; and most importantly, with Rilke, reminding them to:<br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #181818;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">With my small resources, I'll buy a beautiful, handcrafted bookshelf here, a vivid painting of trees against an October sky there, textured photographs and well-lettered altar cards..Art and crafts by those whose voice is strong, or growing well within them. I'll nourish them with words and actions, at the same time nourishing my own family with the beauty they've created.<br /><br />Society needs artists, just as society needs prophets..and both are rare, shy creatures in our culture. It's a dangerous calling. It's dangerous to have any calling, "the ideology of our time is that we can live an uncalled life, one not referred to any purpose beyond one's self."(Walter Brueggeman)..and our society hopes that in encouraging such a life, everyone will be essentially the same, and the prophet, the artist, the 'necessary other' will recede into distant memory. But it is a calling, and not everyone who desires it is called.</span></span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-62429410090309354942015-04-16T22:25:00.000-04:002015-04-16T22:25:24.511-04:00Very Inspiring!<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm most inspiring when quiet, I suppose...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://spinstrawintogold.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">My much-beloved Christie</a> sent me an award! Thank you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I have to talk about myself a bit now (7 things you may or may not know):</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 1. Generally I dream in black and white..or grey..but with bursts of color - red or green - in one or two places only. And I never have nightmares anymore.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 2. My second child, Ilya Birch was born last month. Growing him has been part of my distraction from blogging. Like his sister, Ilya was born in the caul and in water. Unlike his sister, he was born in daylight, and took a surprising 8 hours to be born. Yarrow was there to greet him and they act as though they've know each other forever.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 3. I'm currently a redhead. Bright, bright red, with black tips..but soon I think I'll be a blond again. Or maybe not. My favorite hair color is black.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 4. My favorite everything color is black. Black is where I'm happiest, most comfortable, and someday, if I'm very, very lucky, I'll get a baby with black hair that <i>stays </i>black. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 5. I think Joss Whedon is the Best Director Ever. I adore everything I've seen of his and I'm kind of an addict when it comes to Firefly..and Buffy. And his Much Ado About Nothing is pretty much the best movie adaptation of Shakespeare ever made. I love him <i>almost </i>as much as I love Rainer Maria Rilke..and that's saying a lot.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 6. If I could only read one book for the rest of my life...it would be the Bible (as read aloud by my husband, who really captures the story-telling aspects). But if we discount the Bible..it'd be Rilke's Book of Hours. I need that book to feel normal - but in a good way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"> 7. I <i>love </i>reading self-help books I disagree with, or badly written fiction, or badly written self-help books I disagree with. Right now I'm reading 'Love & Respect: the love she desires, the respect he <i>desperately needs". </i>I can't help wondering why all the wives in the book sound like monsters and why the husbands can't just 'desire' respect, why they have to 'desperately need' it, which sounds so...pathetic. I also wonder why the wives don't want to be respected, just loved..I don't think these books are written for me at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And now I'm supposed to nominate others...but really, I'm best at talking about myself, not others, so I'll keep this short:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.jennasthilaire.com/" target="_blank">Jenna, dear, please</a>! Your blog is inspiring because you're beautiful and honest and back again trying to write with too many commitments in life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://lorettarwen.wordpress.com/">Loretta..</a>I can't wait to see how your life grows back in the States. I miss seeing you, chica!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><a href="https://serpentsden.wordpress.com/">Little brother</a>, you inspire me because you try and you dream and you hope. Keep seeking, you're a blessing to know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And now that I've begun again, maybe this will be the year for consistency. If you're reading this, you've been incredibly patient with me. Blessings on you and yours in this long-awaited spring!</span></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-19678039628400675242015-04-16T19:13:00.000-04:002015-04-18T10:44:21.899-04:00The Book Club Returns...<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Wow...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's been forever, hasn't it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I got distracted by life, had a baby, and weathered our roughest winter yet in the yurt. We're getting back into things slowly, purging out the distractions, and focusing on the good. And Our little book club is good! It gets me thinking and writing, and conversing just a bit more than I otherwise would.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Jenna's post is <a href="http://www.jennasthilaire.com/2015/04/harry-potter-book-club-prisoner-of.html" target="_blank">here:</a> Go check it out. She has some lovely thoughts, and you can catch up on her life as well (and in more detail).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Especially interesting to me, we get to talk a bit more about divination (something Rowling doesn't really seem to respect, though there are moments in the books..). Jenna can happily anticipate having fewer "curiously clarifying" dreams when I send her the sleep pillow I've almost made (bad timing keeps delaying it)..though my hope is that it brings restfully-prophetic dreams, not the terrifying ones! But mugwort it sometimes difficult to control. (Don't worry though, Jenna, it's been blessed!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Trelawney is a delightful fraud for the most part though, and I think Dumbledore is depriving his students by keeping her as a teacher..a guest, or a 'resident reader' would be acceptable, but a teacher?! I'm reminded of too many from my own public education..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm also reminded of a woman I met at a bar, a friendly, modern-day worshipper of Diane who asked why I was afraid to use magic, then 'felt my energy' and wondered why I didn't feel afraid after all...we talked for hours, but she had no interest in God-magic that comes with limitations, and goddesses tend to bore me.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I wonder if part of the issue, in Harry's world as well as ours, is that (moral issues aside) most people who can read the future don't because, as Firenze mentions a few times, they can so easily be misread or mis-applied. Or because it's generally just plain intrusive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">With Rowling's other treatment of magic though, I tend to assume it's more that divination isn't objective enough. It can't be turned into an A+B=C formula, as most of her magic appears to be. But maybe that's part of her point, too...maybe Trelawney's merely a reminder that attempting to make a formula from a mystery is impossible and makes those that attempt it look ridiculous. Actually, I like that last assumption best. Let's go with that! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I also wonder if, as Laura mentioned in the comments on Jenna's post, a plain-old slap is more insulting in the wizarding world because of it's 'lowly' connotations, that divination might be seen in a similar light among certain wizards because it's a gift not limited to wizards, and apparently not any more common among them than it is among non-magical folks? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">What do you think? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And welcome back after all this time!</span>Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-84795932680810754942014-06-12T08:46:00.001-04:002014-06-12T08:46:57.007-04:00Midsummer Retreating: St. John the Baptist and Interior Hospitality<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I'm taking some time this month to reflect this month. Just a week or so to reconnect with God. I'm not going anywhere..I retreat best at home with my elf-child and my inspiring husband (though Luba is sometimes less than retreat worthy). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">It's the season of St. John. The days are long and bright, the moon is our friend and the nights - though brief, are refreshing. The Season of St. John is a woody season, and earth-season, a wild time of transition for many of us..'He must increase, I must decrease'.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The Baptist is the saint of transitions and roles - defined so completely by his place between the Prophets and the Messiah, Old and New - the Forerunner to Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In this retreat time I'm crafting a rule of life: slowly, gently, building Christ more intimately into my days. The first stage belongs especially to St. John - the stage of roles and relationships. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am reflecting on my roles, my relationships with others, and the ways in which I can nourish them while nurturing my own interior life as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">St. John spent his life in the wilderness. The 'Angel of the Desert,' he is nourish on fasting and on the earth and the Sun, only from a life a part can he touch deeply the people he loves and live out his purpose in life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">For me the wilderness - though less vast and less wild - is also a healing place. Mine is fuller, with more companionship, more noise, but still a place that becomes for me a haven of reflection..a place to put down roots and drink in the whispers of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-15037011612496993062014-05-22T12:10:00.000-04:002014-05-22T12:10:05.697-04:00Love and Solitude in Modern Life<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Think.. of the world you carry within you."</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I like to be lonely much of the time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I crave the pure solitude of a space with no one in it, and the fuzzy, dusky solitude of time alone with my little family; I like the haunted sort of solitude of being alone with strangers all around as well - in cafes, where little tables of people talk together and I am alone among them. But only if I can avoid conversations..keep my solitude safe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">At times though, I wonder if my lonely self - listening and loving and all wrapped up in thought - is offering a good sort of love to the people I am alone among in my haunted solitude. Am I being as Christ to them, when I sit in solitary thought? We have a tendency to fill time and spaces with movement, don't we? With words and little gestures..and sometimes I wonder if people can see love lived without the little gestures or words that fill up the spaces between us. The words and gestures I am so incapable of making up. I hope so..</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And I think they do. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Once, on a late train I sat beside a man from India, traveling with his little band. Before his stop, he turned and smiled: "You were never a stranger to me" he said and left for another show in another Canadian town. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I am grateful, to be a friend and not a stranger to all the little Christs around me. Quiet as I am among them. </span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-58673355619890015902014-05-20T09:18:00.001-04:002014-05-20T09:18:41.062-04:00Easter Icons:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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" 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<br /><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"The poets scattered you about</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">(a storm swept through their stuttering);</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">but I would like to scoop you up</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">into a cup you like."</span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></span> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Christ plays like a child - never tiring He appears again and again in the cup. "Here I am! Watch me! See! Let's do it again!" He pours out Himself joyfully, laughing as He comes down to all His beloved sinners..It's this Icon especially that reminds me of the encounter between Christ and the Rich Young Man who couldn't turn from his many things. I feel for the young man, I'm not rich, but I do love my many things: my pretty tarot cards, my silks and lamps and cups.. I always picture Christ's face in the encounter: sad, but laughing just a bit, knowing He's made the path a bit easier for the man, just by loving. The Rich Young Man walks away rich and unhappy, because already he knows there's something better than gold waiting for him..Some one who never really stops waiting for him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I like to imagine that his story is continued in St. Francis..that we don't read of him in the scriptures because we'll get to <i>see </i>the play of his life in the life of the saint who - more than any other other, gave up all he had and followed Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I imagine the rich young man as a hidden Francis, and I expect he saw Christ around every bend and in every cup, reaching out to him again. </span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-11464765383601922072014-05-10T10:16:00.001-04:002014-05-10T10:16:24.452-04:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9unc2ZJrs8Upx0fMUC_pnDS_AAui0_JHW1x_V2zr2-PNZtn_rH6Grx6JvOx4WBK4cS5s88PueZAK-fHOgnaQOfQm_4GdcizCN8mTFtVQojjl5msOtUUqtHZiJp3igzk8yfPRDQyvJY4/s1600/tbc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB9unc2ZJrs8Upx0fMUC_pnDS_AAui0_JHW1x_V2zr2-PNZtn_rH6Grx6JvOx4WBK4cS5s88PueZAK-fHOgnaQOfQm_4GdcizCN8mTFtVQojjl5msOtUUqtHZiJp3igzk8yfPRDQyvJY4/s1600/tbc.jpg" height="146" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Welcome back! It’s been far too long so we have to hit the ground running with a drink that is not only tasty, but packs a little punch. Fewer steps than the Shiny, but with more ingredients and a far higher alcohol level, this drink is quick to mix but slow to sip. Perfect to pair with tiny sandwiches, even if the trick in this case is not wood alcohol, but moonshine. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">And so, in honor of Christie's move to the UK, here is Badger’s drink, the “Very Fine Hat”.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL3azGqs5hE5HgqgTEqOiobXt0oRcU6EJQc7VhbOiMZgiu50olnZKprEOetCLWIVZ25TXc5YhP4pcTQpCFo9Tte1EVnYWv5nD4ljg3T1uu3ewdIBpSheDGdJ6fTDAYNqOqc_AfX4fGwA/s1600/tumblr_lk1cumm5lt1qds3igo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLL3azGqs5hE5HgqgTEqOiobXt0oRcU6EJQc7VhbOiMZgiu50olnZKprEOetCLWIVZ25TXc5YhP4pcTQpCFo9Tte1EVnYWv5nD4ljg3T1uu3ewdIBpSheDGdJ6fTDAYNqOqc_AfX4fGwA/s1600/tumblr_lk1cumm5lt1qds3igo1_500.jpg" height="221" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">" 'Course, you couldn't buy an invite with a diamond the size of a testicle. But I got my hands on a couple."</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> -Badger</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: underline;">VERY FINE HAT</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">1 1/2 oz moonshine (a good vodka will work too. It just lacks that lawless nature)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">3/4 oz black tea, cooled (I recommend lichee congou as it makes a naturally sweet cup, but Earl Grey or English Breakfast are fine)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Splash of simple syrup</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic;">Apple twist, for garish</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Brew the tea before hand and set aside to cool. Sweeten it if it’s too bitter, or you just like it that way. Once cooled, shake together the tea, moonshine, and simple syrup with ice, and strain into a teacup (yes, that’s necessary for the drink).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Garnish with a long green apple peel and drink with a smug, self-satisfied air. It’s perfectly okay to indulge in a fake English accent at this point. The more Very Fine Hats you have, the better it will probably get. No, really. Trust me. And then recite River’s whole “sad li’l king of a sad li’l hill” line and you’ve taken one more very substantial step down Firefly fandom. </span></span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-7061114283036875792014-05-07T09:23:00.000-04:002014-05-07T09:23:01.925-04:00Where We Write..Photos from Home<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This is where I write, most days..on the bed with coffee.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And a place for Yarrow to play nearby..you can see she's not in her chair though.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She's never in her chair when I'm writing.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There she is! Distracting me..</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b>Where do you write? Show me!</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b>Link your own photos below!</b></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b> </b></span></i> <!-- start InLinkz script --><br /><br /><script src="http://www.inlinkz.com/cs.php?id=402900" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><br /><!-- end InLinkz script --></div>
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<br />Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-16563595286031407362014-05-05T16:00:00.000-04:002014-05-05T16:00:00.787-04:00"Do Młodego Przyjaciela" - A Guest Poem from Nanynka<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We are exploring various loves for the moment, and my dear friend, Nanynka offers her poem for consideration. Love, friendship, longing, and reflection. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Thank you, Nanynka for sharing your lovely, heartfelt poem: Do </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>Młodego Przyjaciela (to a young friend). Your loving comments, gentle critiques, and responses are appreciated!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>* * * * * * * * </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I like you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I liked my little sister </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">those few days when she was vunerable;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">when I saw in her someone who mirrored me -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">unexpectedly-</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and was beautiful.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I yearn over you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I yearn over a different life I might have lived</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">had I been braver, more aware</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">a life in which my parents made me stick with my sonatinas</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">when I was too shy and childish to make myself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A life in which I traded top bunks:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">my own for a distant college dorm's.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A life in which I married young - </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">young enough to become a mother</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">with my own sons and daughters to yearn over. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I dream of you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I dream of a girl I wish I knew</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">though I am afraid to approach</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">because the crowd around her </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">neither asks to be remembered,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">nor expects to be carried onward.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">She owns so many of my dreams</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">but so many more belong to you. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I love you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">with some share of the love I have for the boy you remind me of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and I love him</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">with some share of the love I have for you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And I don't know how you are all of these things to me </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">when all I know of you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">is a little music;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">an hour at your side; talk of snow</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and small towns;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">also, countless times I've watched a light come suddenly into your face</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and attempted to understand why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It's a little shameless of me, that watching, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">but it's hard to miss the chance to know you better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We have you for so little time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I pray for you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I prayed for my hedonist, who sang Handel -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">two hours of fervent music, two hours of wild prayer -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and I pray for you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I pray for my long-ago student, who mocked fear</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and laughed at God</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">but shared his earphones</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and hugged me to his trenchcoat;</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and I pray for you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">as I pray for the ones who are mine by blood</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">though not my own -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">upheld in empty arms and heart spilling over, as you are -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">when I see in them "the pure, the bright, the beautiful"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and intercede without words,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">terrified at what could happen to their hearts</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and their minds,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> their bodies</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and their souls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">in this rapacious world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I pray for you because</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">there's almost nothing else I can do for you</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">so I do it with all my might.</span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-25589400912041376252014-05-01T09:38:00.000-04:002014-05-01T09:38:30.214-04:00Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b5QQK8mhQI_lJiuFn5jtGW6Ak0XL6dkESiY1qVN6q2Iyzp2tsowBFHK53PFVwHuIBF2ChLrHe-bIijrVwaaLtbRq2C-CV1v8l3-BfaetMg7j4zKDQgGNfbXPuYToTnsRGkYAOLoedro/s1600/Easter+Christ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1b5QQK8mhQI_lJiuFn5jtGW6Ak0XL6dkESiY1qVN6q2Iyzp2tsowBFHK53PFVwHuIBF2ChLrHe-bIijrVwaaLtbRq2C-CV1v8l3-BfaetMg7j4zKDQgGNfbXPuYToTnsRGkYAOLoedro/s1600/Easter+Christ.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Happy Easter & Blessed May Day!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I ended Easter week on a low note. The sort of sickly, weak, and tender low note that left me feverish and bed-ridden for two days, and fragile for another two. Ugh. I haven't been sick like that for so long, it sort of came as a shock to me. I missed a chance to speak to people about the Liturgy (for real, I was invited to a Youth conference!), missed my husband's Shakespeare party, left all the baking up to him (he made an amazingly tasty chocolate cake!), and learned that Yarrow is the tenderest of nursemaids.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">But last night, I realized how very recovered I was, and celebrated with a night of insomnia..the productive, happy, and just a bit manic sort of insomnia. It's been fun.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So here's what's coming up this month:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Guest poems (send along one if you're interested in some gentle, loving responses!)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Book reviews: More kid's books because I love them, and a few grown up books as well.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">A few thoughts on introversion and love.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The long promised Pan's Labyrinth review!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Some of my poems to pick apart.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Easter Icon Reflections</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And The Bartender's Corner.. Thanks to Seth!</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span><i><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Any special requests?</span></b></i><br />
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-73421642982909579092014-04-21T18:37:00.000-04:002014-04-21T18:37:53.378-04:00Easter Icons! Wesołego Alleluja!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">This week we greet the Risen Christ and He reaches down to lift us to Himself. </span> </div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"I am the proud city of the Lord</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">and I proclaim him with a hundred voices;</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">in me the praises of David resound. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I lie reclining in the twilight of the harp</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">while breathing the evening star."</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">(Rainer Maria Rilke) </span></i></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-36598735670297055712014-04-14T08:50:00.000-04:002014-04-14T08:50:02.345-04:00Lenten Icons: Mary of Egypt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVeLQQJIke5f6SCg_IBde2wJfBdEcMVRWYcNAxoFpq8nV1sOG_WUXIq5LYRvzsY4hWSHaG3rCazGBe_rPD6782BcZ_lCJpq389mZk7K3M55TQhGb6WQL2zUWyNRrISopWTK3UktSzWFk/s1600/mary+of+egypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioVeLQQJIke5f6SCg_IBde2wJfBdEcMVRWYcNAxoFpq8nV1sOG_WUXIq5LYRvzsY4hWSHaG3rCazGBe_rPD6782BcZ_lCJpq389mZk7K3M55TQhGb6WQL2zUWyNRrISopWTK3UktSzWFk/s1600/mary+of+egypt.jpg" height="400" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"Now He had made her one who was loving,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>not just the lover pulled and drawn;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>and having been shaken by vicious storms</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>she had come into her own."*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mary of Egypt, patron of penitents. Her story is well-enough know, a prostitute in Alexandria, who rarely charged for her services (some say because of overwhelming passion, others because she simply loved people, and decided loving them was the best was to bring happiness into their lives..I prefer the latter). Mary bought a trip to the Holy Land this way, and when she arrived, discovered that she couldn't enter the Churches until she repented. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What I love about Mary of Egypt most especially, is that we see so obviously that she doesn't <i>change </i>in her conversion, she comes into her own. She is still the passionate one, the whole-hearted giver of herself, she is still promiscuous - unable to limit herself, to be proper or restrained. Only now she is made whole, and her whole self can be loving to the whole selves of others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In the desert, her home for years after her conversion, Mary is taught scripture by Christ Himself. She fasts, she blesses St. Zosimas who is in awe of her holiness, walks on water to receive Communion from him, and is later buried by both Zosimas and a Lion - the lion himself stands in for her beloved Christ. She in penitential, reminding us, with Oscar Wilde, that the trouble is less in what we do than in what we become.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> <i>"I only need seven days, I guess,</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>which no one has claimed or covered before, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>seven pages o loneliness."**</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">* Rilke. The Risen One</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">**Rilke. The Book of Hours </span> </i></span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-65013250727470901252014-04-04T07:02:00.000-04:002014-04-14T08:50:20.889-04:00Lenten Icons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCvo67d3rGDsIXKNqisdJ82NOOk1-dnfl-Ctw8Y4TfHVhMMAivkE4b-YJbKFhYQq1IAf_m8WHZx7X58VQoLQih4C3mH2N9CpyCrDwC7m30MGVuQp9U7R70gTzx1NczF4jaSj4Ve7L9dI/s1600/three+handed+virgin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtCvo67d3rGDsIXKNqisdJ82NOOk1-dnfl-Ctw8Y4TfHVhMMAivkE4b-YJbKFhYQq1IAf_m8WHZx7X58VQoLQih4C3mH2N9CpyCrDwC7m30MGVuQp9U7R70gTzx1NczF4jaSj4Ve7L9dI/s1600/three+handed+virgin.jpg" height="400" width="333" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"I'm still a novice concerning pain-</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">that's how small I feel in this great dark;</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">but if you are there, be heavy and and break through;</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">have your whole hand do it's work on me"*</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Three Handed Virgin is the Icon in honor of the Theotokos, healer of St. John of Damascus. St. John of Damascus' hand was cut off by the Iconoclast Emperor, Leo III, but when he took his pain to the Virgin, She restored St. John's hand, and he wrote the Icon in gratitude. Originally, the third hand hung around Her neck, but later versions have it as it is in the Icon above, a natural part of Her. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Three-Handed Virgin, the miracle working Mother of God, reminds us always that God is the restorer of hope, and the healer of all wounds. She is magical, this Mother, offering 'a river of grace' to the children of God who come in faith to rest beneath her mantle. Restoring hands and hearts, bodies and souls, to wholeness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"And though I am like leaves and loam, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>as often as I pray or paint</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>it's Sunday and deep down I am </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>joyful Jerusalem."* </i> </span></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-8751513885705080602014-04-03T09:00:00.000-04:002014-04-03T09:00:08.988-04:00Meditations on the Tarot: The Chariot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdiH-7xq6e-7xFXMJODyB7qVUu-a4Cnb5_910JrWP4sXOMg3CO5h3AwY-o9ZyvNxkYs1PPNPMJ2L8kEegtNrj3lkrvyGIXifhRvFRxWcexKEWqyOiuvk7e-yzBdPGNK7DlYMnoTb7EpI/s1600/tarot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgdiH-7xq6e-7xFXMJODyB7qVUu-a4Cnb5_910JrWP4sXOMg3CO5h3AwY-o9ZyvNxkYs1PPNPMJ2L8kEegtNrj3lkrvyGIXifhRvFRxWcexKEWqyOiuvk7e-yzBdPGNK7DlYMnoTb7EpI/s1600/tarot.jpg" height="320" width="162" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Chariot is the card of triumph, and the card of fasting. It is the card which teaches renunciation and mastery through obedience. In it I see St. Mary of Egypt, who's feast was yesterday; the woman who gave up an entire life to follow her Beloved into the desert, where she never again tasted the wines and good foods of her previous life, and, it seems, hardly missed them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Mary, who turned so suddenly and so completely from her sins, was saved from the temptation that comes with renunciation, the temptation toward spiritual pride. She was saved, I think, through love. She had that rich and promiscuous love; the love that in one moment falls so completely and never looks back. Love enough to give everything to Him and never question. I picture her with water-hands, Mary of Egypt..long, thin, and brown after her years in the desert, listening to her Lord whisper His words to her in the sunlight, and laughing merrily at the thought of her life to come. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Fasting is the means to the triumph of love over death, and in these final week of Lent, we recommit ourselves to it, in hope of finding some share of St. Mary's own Triumph.The Chariot card reminds us that renunciation requires love to succeed.</span>Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-73773599160964406142014-03-29T13:00:00.001-04:002014-03-29T13:04:07.652-04:00Harry Potter's Lenten Retreat Part Two<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Our love thoughts have been delayed a bit..I am thoroughly distracted by friendships. I can't help it. I blame the winter, it hasn't moved on, so why should I? But today is spring-like and fresh; the sun is shining on the snow: it's time to wake up. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">As we talked about the trio and the tone of their friendship in the books, we could only agree that time will tell..the later books will show Harry and his friends at their best and worst, and if you find them inspiring when it's all done, well..I'd recommend a healthy dose of Rilke and another of Joss, but Jenna might just have a hug and a cup of tea for you.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7hXfDkd9tYxQXotfd0ObIVG6a1s8qwE4eyEvkKWRWgo1-mQsr2HKhmYlvXaexegnxvLdcGDtk-r8LL3Rt5-d0YqCyzdRNuPhVavo9YWGaxPZVBZn7s3raY-oVysm9ink5k5Pmgf_Ph08/s1600/ttcfkettle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7hXfDkd9tYxQXotfd0ObIVG6a1s8qwE4eyEvkKWRWgo1-mQsr2HKhmYlvXaexegnxvLdcGDtk-r8LL3Rt5-d0YqCyzdRNuPhVavo9YWGaxPZVBZn7s3raY-oVysm9ink5k5Pmgf_Ph08/s1600/ttcfkettle.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.etsy.com/shop/PaperwineIndustries" target="_blank">Happy, magical tea!</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">* * * * * * * * </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Jenna writes: </span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> Hermione is the constant in the Trio, the one who—despite bossiness and a
taste for following the rules that goes mostly unshared by her best
friends—is never, as far as I can recall offhand, disloyal. She bickers
with Ron and is occasionally rude to him, usually after he does
something particularly unkind to her, but she never gives either of them
up for lost causes. Both boys need that loyalty.</span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
In Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron and Hermione don't speak to each
other for weeks on account of Hermione's cat supposedly killing Ron's
rat. Harry and Ron are both more heartless without Hermione, and it's her approach,
trembling, with the important knowledge of a mutual friend's grief,
that begins reconciliation. That act cracks Ron's pride. When Ron's
pride cracks, Hermione's caves in, and Harry's might never have existed.
All is forgiven.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">She's right. I really liked her point, it put the group in perspective for me a bit. Hermione is never disloyal. She bickers, she bosses, she's prissy and obnoxious, and completely loyal. She definitely holds the three together. She is, in that sense, the heart of the trio. It's an unfortunate weakness that she's also the brain of the group, leaving it a bit lopsided, as she both nurtures and understands, Harry acts and directs, and Ron...? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Jenna also reminds me that the love Rowling seems least comfortable with is actually romance. Right again! I'd sort of neglected romance because at this point because there's really no way to discuss romance in the series at this point, is there??? I mean, book three is too far away from anything really <i>discuss-able..</i>right Jenna??</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And the Marauders..you know, I was sort of careless last week. I neglected them completely. Go <a href="http://www.jennasthilaire.com/2014/03/harry-potter-and-love-imperfect.html" target="_blank">read Jenna's thoughts on them, </a>if you haven't already! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">* * * * * * * * </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Familial love..</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We see quite a bit of a few different families in Harry Potter. In the first three books we have the Dursleys and the Weasleys primarily, but there are glimpses of others: snatches of Neville's grandmother and tiny peeks at Hermione's parents. What's missing for me is a <i>healthy</i> family dynamic. Not ideal..I'm not expecting ideal, - really, <i>honestly, </i>I'm serious! - just reasonably attractive. I know everyone thinks I'm mean for rejecting the Weasleys..and I'll admit I've no real-world experience with life inside such a marriage. I hate-with-a-passion the 'hen-pecked husband' thing. Can't stand it. I am way too sick of the over-abundance of Father-as-object-of-Ridicule gigs to embrace yet another. I'd love to see a family where spouses share a mutual respect and nurture each others dignity, but the whole "mother as over-bearing, controlling, nag/husband as hen-pecked loser" thing repels me. Yes, I'm biased - forgive me? If you are a real-life husband who's wife regularly channels Mrs. Weasley, and that treatment leaves you feeling loved, respected, and uplifted, feel free to correct me. Or, if you're not, but you're sympathetic to their whole family dynamic, tell me about it. I'll argue with you, but not too much, because today's<i> my anniversary(!!)</i>, and I have cute new bangs, and a husband I adore; besides, whatever the day, I pity the Weasleys more than dislike them.. It's hard to break out of unhealthy patterns; I know, it's lent and I'm craving gelato.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEdrywZOuw4VKrWqsC7hADaMxC9vjeJzl-TU3JC5luM6I2WBMADKsS6HZgSGfQdSCgvhGaNtRKObMEzBiZrWX1J6_M6j_ybqTe8Fe4tBrM3_pQ4tkyN2RgnmaPtHivk_ZxA-6voydesXg/s1600/weasley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEdrywZOuw4VKrWqsC7hADaMxC9vjeJzl-TU3JC5luM6I2WBMADKsS6HZgSGfQdSCgvhGaNtRKObMEzBiZrWX1J6_M6j_ybqTe8Fe4tBrM3_pQ4tkyN2RgnmaPtHivk_ZxA-6voydesXg/s1600/weasley.jpg" height="398" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100613122726/harrypotter/images/2/28/Besos.jpg" target="_blank">That face says "Bored now"..to me.</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The Weasely siblings are not a bad bunch though. They've got the whole mean-but-loyal brotherly bond going on..(for the most part..coughpercycough..) and they're kind of an adorable group. Bill-the-hottie was obviously the best of the lot, but his kid brothers are everything I can think of to like about siblings: obnoxious, loyal, grumble-y, companionable..and his sister is very much the 'youngest child of a large family'. I'm not a fan of Ginny..but she fits her family well, and there's a nice bundle of affection tying them all together. </span></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The
Dursleys - even amongst themselves, ignoring their treatment of Harry -
we can leave for a discussion on un-loves. Rowling does wonderfully
with them. They're so distanced from proper familial love that I don't even compare them to run of the mill unhealthy families, a class of their own..in a bad way. And I pretty much love every scene they're in in these first few books.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The tiny family pictures: Neville and Gran, Hermione's Mum and Dad..what do they show us about the theme of familial love in the series so far? Not much, really. It'd be easy to judge the relationships we see on what little is shown of them so far - another overbearing woman, belittling her grandson; distant, uninvolved parents. But that isn't the whole picture, and so we'll wait and watch. I wish Neville's gran was kinder to him now, I wish Hermione's parent's weren't so conveniently out of sight and mind; but unless any of you have thoughts on them to share, I'll leave the picking apart of their loves 'til later. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMgoYZsjEsLZ13MzU2UdcxFEqlat76S01-FDLhXxNgrrN6I8uXA0t3ZagksXIOzXmCcv7uhJq_P986WBz-0O8Mb55MGModG5Jzawbvu4R0CD9woQHkmBihSZB5cbosvOJ7CauGzgD85g/s1600/neville.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMgoYZsjEsLZ13MzU2UdcxFEqlat76S01-FDLhXxNgrrN6I8uXA0t3ZagksXIOzXmCcv7uhJq_P986WBz-0O8Mb55MGModG5Jzawbvu4R0CD9woQHkmBihSZB5cbosvOJ7CauGzgD85g/s1600/neville.jpg" height="400" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/1b/f5/96/1bf5960977997daff53a8add6cc05387.jpg" target="_blank">hahaha..sorry, I couldn't help it</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What do you think about all the family love we're looking at here? Link in or comment!</span></b></i><br />
<br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> <!-- start InLinkz script --><br /><br /><script src="http://www.inlinkz.com/cs.php?id=388476" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><br /><!-- end InLinkz script --></span></b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></i></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-66200336347253463842014-03-25T10:03:00.001-04:002014-03-25T10:03:51.325-04:00Meditations on the Tarot: The Lover<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYU73gyOibwcgDzflfdCU5spYjdDcHpbAvfj231DftwHVUOI-UCpW9MdcZFhZRgWztuAxRU8NuGWWs6Z-NdYdPNcwbpS86NQ-hqZA5PsW0qKzHBuHU_TF5tzGrSx0LHe522tWnfC5rc18/s1600/the+lover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYU73gyOibwcgDzflfdCU5spYjdDcHpbAvfj231DftwHVUOI-UCpW9MdcZFhZRgWztuAxRU8NuGWWs6Z-NdYdPNcwbpS86NQ-hqZA5PsW0qKzHBuHU_TF5tzGrSx0LHe522tWnfC5rc18/s1600/the+lover.jpg" height="400" width="203" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My Lenten focus has been Love and yet I couldn't write about the Lover - who chooses between two very different loves. The card shows him between to women, the first "seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>I had to offer sacrifices</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>and today I have paid my vows. </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>So now I have come out to meet,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>to seek you eagerly, and I have found you."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>(proverbs 7:13-15) </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The other holds back, she is the opposite of her rival. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"I possess knowledge and discretion..</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>I love those who love me,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>and those who seek me find me."</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>(proverbs 8:12 and 17)</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is the card of temptation. The choice between vice and virtue - and one made easier through the discipline of fasting, because we fast to seek God, to learn love more deeply from Love Himself, with minds and hearts undistracted by the seductions of the one we do not love. The one who wants us, but not as a true love does. </span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is an ideal season to keep the lover in mind, to meditate on his choice as we try to build "a spiritual monastery in relation to this world and it's god." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> </span></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-20906233438906374382014-03-21T23:42:00.000-04:002014-03-22T11:43:03.110-04:00Lenten Icons: Blessed Silence<div style="text-align: center;">
<img class="irc_mut" height="393" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" 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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"Deep I go down into myself. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>My God is dark and like a webbing made of a hundred roots</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>that drink in silence."*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Generally considered a Christmas Icon, I can't help but run to the Blessed Silence in Lent as well - when all is quiet and waiting. At Adoration the other day, Yarrow whispered to Seth "Jesus is very, very, very, <i>very </i>good. <i>And </i>he is very fun." He is Silent, beautiful, and like my daughter, I want to surround Him with adjectives. Enthusiastic, repetitive adjectives, but He prefers the quiet of an eager soul that rises up, past the adjectives and participles, beyond all language limitations; two between whom even He cannot find a difference.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"Let your beauty manifest itself</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">without talking and calculation.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">You are silent. It says for you: I am.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And come in meaning thousandfold, </span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>comes at long last over everyone."*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br />*<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Rainer Maria Rilke</span></span></div>
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Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-85638862564593555302014-03-19T13:04:00.001-04:002014-03-19T13:04:48.736-04:00St. Joseph<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_mrkgJ-0j1BIYpQwR0oRXfTwiUGaUmBZmid-svfZfcuSYZuv5JvM7yAUsHh76SUjXUbKGs5aY-yPUGZXqRNGinoeUGC1NPfoqoDEKRuOV2iTJBS-ZKZztZD_hHHqfchctfUEIMzA_XTg/s1600/st.+joseph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_mrkgJ-0j1BIYpQwR0oRXfTwiUGaUmBZmid-svfZfcuSYZuv5JvM7yAUsHh76SUjXUbKGs5aY-yPUGZXqRNGinoeUGC1NPfoqoDEKRuOV2iTJBS-ZKZztZD_hHHqfchctfUEIMzA_XTg/s1600/st.+joseph.png" height="400" width="400" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"You are the woods of paradox. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>Though I may rock you like a child, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>Your curses ever come to pass</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>as dread on people's backs."*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Dear, beloved St. Joseph. I wonder at his fatherhood. What must it be to hold fresh scented eternity in arms? I pray hard to Joseph - in whose hands the dead staff blooms. He belongs to Springtime, the spring that comes after a long winter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think of the the tale from the desert fathers: The master gives to his novice a stick of dry wood. "Plant it." he tells the youth, "Water it daily until it bears fruit." All the branches outside my window are dead and dry, but above the altar Saint Joseph holds his lily-staff and waits, contented; the King of paradox in his arms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"I am the father but the son is more, </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>is everything the father was; and what </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>he couldn't be, the son becomes as well;</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>the son is both the future and the past</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>source of rivulets and sea to which they turn."*</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Blessed Feast!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><i> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>*Rainer Maria Rilke's Book of Hours </i> <i> </i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div>
<br />Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-84228639916512534632014-03-14T22:28:00.002-04:002014-04-14T08:50:42.968-04:00Lenten Icons: St. Moses the Prophet<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"None of the angels, but the dark and fallen one</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>was willing; took up arms and with deadly intent</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>approached the one to whom he had been sent.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i> But again he rattled away, backwards, and up </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>to the heavens he scream: I can't."** </i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Moses. The man who talks intimately with God. In a season of intensified prayer, he is our guide. Radiant-faced, argumentative Moses. The friend of God. God has a interesting way of picking friends. He does it as I can only wish to - see and know and love. They are so tender together, these jealous ones - the Lord and His beloved. </span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">In the icon, Moses has such soulful eyes. Holding onto the law he gazes into the bush, as though they are once again caught up in that eternal conversation:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"<i>I walk forever toward you</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>with a single mind and strong;</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>for who would I be and who would you</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>if we didn't get along?"*</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I am always almost sad for Moses, who wandered for 40 years in the desert and never touched the promised land, but what would he have done there, settled in the land of milk and honey? His role was to guide the people home; to draw from the wilderness holy wisdom. And I can never quite morn him, whom Death feared to touch. Taken up like Enoch and Elijah to watch and wait for Easter.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"And from this well-ordered house,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>he called the soul forth to rise, up! to recount</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>the many common things of a friendship deeply laid."**</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">* Rainer Maria Rilke: The Book of Hours</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">** Rainer Maria Rilke: Moses' Death </span> </i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i> </i> </span></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-57255373054338704622014-03-12T13:37:00.000-04:002014-03-12T13:49:43.644-04:00Harry Potter's Lenten Retreat<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I'm in charge of the Book Club this Lent. <a href="http://jennasthilaire.com/" target="_blank">Jenna</a> is starting a new job (congratulations!) and <a href="http://www.spinstrawintogold.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Christie </a>has made the Big Move to the Wales-that-is-not-in-Maine (double congratulations!!), and I am sitting through another snow-storm (12-18 inches predicted. No congratulations in order). That means I have the time and the inclination to head things up this season, they don't. But <i>hopefully</i> they will have the time to jump in! Because we're talking about <b><i>love</i></b>. This Lent is sort of all wrapped up in love for me this year, as I work on being more loving to those around me, to myself, and especially to God (who is all good, and worthy of all my love..that's right, I just went to confession ;) ). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">There's an abundance of love (and love-seeming-emotions) in Harry Potter. There are good and beautiful loves, there are less than ideal loves, and then there are manipulations-disguised as love..we're going to try to talk about all of them. But not all at once.. Today we're just going to start at the beginning. </span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Rules </span></b><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We're not going to be absolutely careful in this discussion, but we are going to try very hard to keep the discussion to the first 3 books. But a few spoilers here and there are just fine. Just avoid focusing on all the love-y stuff from beyond book 3.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Anyone can feel free to join in by linking a blog <i>and/or</i> commenting on any of the posts linked-in to the discussion. We'd <i>love </i>a big, happy argument about how much love Dumbledore actually shows Harry (cough, not much, cough)..or whether or not it is actually possible to create a human-being who has never and could never love another..and we'll probably get all teary-eyed together over Lily's sacrifice (yes, even me). </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">To make it easier on myself, we'll divide the discussion into four semi-overlapping sections: Friendship, Familial, and Sacrificial love, as well as Un-love - a time to explore Voldemort, the Dursley's relationship to Harry, and any un-charities we've noticed.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Harry potter hipster" class="pinImg fullBleed loaded fade" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/c5/b1/63/c5b16310890ede14d131e5619654d42b.jpg" height="194" style="height: 396px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 650px;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://older.unews.ca/images/uploads/Cartoon%20hipster.jpg" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><b>Friendship</b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Friendship is, I think, the love Rowling is least comfortable with..it is the weakest portrayed in the series, the most often portrayed, the least inspiring of all the loves shown in the series. The primary friendship: Harry, Ron, and Hermione is a frustrating one for me. Harry and Ron are pretty consistently abandoning Hermione for all manner of petty reasons, Ron is - it seems, never really stops hating Harry for life in the limelight, and Harry has the sort of trust issues that can only come from an abusive childhood..but why do they never, ever go away - at least with his two closest friends?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> I know we don't like to assume too much about the author from her writing, but throughout the series, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Rowling. "She must not have any friends.." kept flashing through my mind. Because the trio aren't the only friends represented in the series, but they're probably the best shot at <i>healthy, true </i>friendships, and it's disappointing. So much simmering resentment. I look back at my own school-day friendships and I remember having friends like that: friends I liked (even loved), but didn't really trust, friends I knew would isolate me at the first mis-step..those weren't my closest friends. My dearest friends from school were the ones I trusted with my whole heart, the ones I know are still there for me, despite the miles, despite the spiritual distance, despite the paths we've taken that lead away from each other. There's still that core closeness..and maybe that closeness is there, somewhere deeply hidden in the trio. Buried behind back-biting, petty betrayals, and thoughtless cruelties, maybe there's the core of friendship. But if it's there, it seems like a sad, struggling thing - beset on all sides. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> Still, <i>if </i>it is there - and I never see it reading the books, really, only in discussing them afterwards with enthusiastic people who can see it - it does raise the friendships in the series above where I saw them. I like to hope that maybe Rowling is trying to draw that aspect of friendship out. Reminding her readers again and again that love is something constant..something that <i>'bears all things..endures all things..[and] never fails.' </i> </span><br />
<br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">What do you think, are her friendships true and beautiful. Are they Loving?</span></i></b><br />
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<!-- end InLinkz script -->Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-17163677926048755872014-03-07T09:55:00.002-05:002014-03-07T10:04:13.403-05:00Lenten Icons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYIei3C0O-Znv3uk0qGU0PC6q0N_6r-jsNcUcvN3-8yiE0anpkwp7Cu011fcg3jpc75Ixrs5aUo8Bcv1usuBGl_Jv8tdN3EbRlwXqISkBNX0HmnB_sPzopNr2H87s2_wmAU3yG65JQyOo/s1600/lamenting+virgin1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYIei3C0O-Znv3uk0qGU0PC6q0N_6r-jsNcUcvN3-8yiE0anpkwp7Cu011fcg3jpc75Ixrs5aUo8Bcv1usuBGl_Jv8tdN3EbRlwXqISkBNX0HmnB_sPzopNr2H87s2_wmAU3yG65JQyOo/s1600/lamenting+virgin1.jpg" height="400" width="293" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Lamenting Virgin is an ideal companion for the season of Lent. She mourns as we do - but deeper, fuller. Her empty arms wrapped around the Son she longs so much to hold. The Mother mourns what cannot be - it is a loss of something she never really had - for who can hold all of God? Strange to think that once she did. Once she had a child, a tiny son who nestled in that lonely space, but the dreams and hopes that mothers share, of the sweet potentiality in each child, that she never really had. He was something else entirely: "<i>I had only streams of milk or tears to offer, and you were ever so much more than me."</i> Something un-holdable, something set apart. And I think she knew, even then, that her arms would always be both empty and full.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>My pain has been perfected and fills me up...</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>You became great,</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>and then you burst the rims of my heart</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>as a smarting too stark. .</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>no longer can I give to you</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>birth.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>(Rainer Maria Rilke. From The Life of the Virgin Mary) </i> </span></div>
Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-78142059255898101812014-03-04T00:28:00.001-05:002014-03-04T00:28:24.851-05:00Meditations on the Tarot V: The Pope<br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPmC6xD8aR1kd70uk-X3Y_JJUI5zd06NVe264_mACOo4CreYQPar25Tdmlx_IW3lrC2AbvZVkmUJS5YELuFE2yPHHfCvHWUZpocKkZb7MBvcPTx2rkk0r-RFuc3inC90vb1NZjkoNVPI/s1600/pope1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPPmC6xD8aR1kd70uk-X3Y_JJUI5zd06NVe264_mACOo4CreYQPar25Tdmlx_IW3lrC2AbvZVkmUJS5YELuFE2yPHHfCvHWUZpocKkZb7MBvcPTx2rkk0r-RFuc3inC90vb1NZjkoNVPI/s1600/pope1.jpg" height="400" width="212" /></a></span></i></div>
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<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"The ancient rites have lost their effectiveness since Christianity appeared in the world. The .. Catholic religion, in fact, is the legitimate daughter of Jesus, King of the Mages. A simple scapular worn by a truly Christian person is a more invincible talisman than the ring and pentacle of Solomon...Necromancers evoke the dead, the sorcerer evokes the devil and he shakes, but the Catholic priest does not tremble in evoking the living God."</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The Pope is the card of Benediction. The magic of the God-Man made visible throughout time. And when I look at it I think of the Icons above my altar - their tiny blue light glowing in the darkness; little doors opening to the warmth of the Divine Will.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">We are entering into a season of fasting now..and I tuck my written prayers behind the Saint best suited to tend to it: Paraskeva and the Theotokos sharing my beloved friends, St. Joseph nurturing the lonely and the dead, Anna keeps me from laying out the lovely cards beneath my books, and Nikolas works wonders for us and keeps the car from breaking down. Yarrow has given the coyotes to St. George, she worries about them - will they find their friends in the night? And there is a creepy guy on the snow as well - haunting, wrapped in his own death, we've given him to Sts. Anthony, Patrick, and Elizabeth Ann Seton, he needs quite a few holy friends to keep from worrying us. The world is full of mysteries. Full of the unsettling dead and the dark, uncertain night. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It is overwhelming to think that we walk on an earth that has drunk the fresh blood of Christ. That we drink it as well - is there anything, really, for us to fear? I worry less while fasting, there is the Icon of Christ in the Cup, reminding me with delight.."I bear on my body the marks of Jesus" and cannot be troubled by any man.</span>Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-32123059604368427352014-03-01T19:59:00.001-05:002014-03-01T19:59:45.852-05:00Harry Potter Book Club: Lent, Lies, and Penitence<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Ash Wednesday is <i>this </i>Wednesday! This very Wednesday..it's sort of overwhelming. But my fellow bookclubbing girls and I want to do something special this season: Christie is moving to Wales (no, not Wales, ME - unfortunately; the <i>real </i>Wales) and Jenna is readjusting her life in pursuit of <i>more </i>knowledge - so we may not have as much time as <i>ideally </i>we would for consistent sections of analysis and discussion. What we <i>do </i>have though, is a passionate interest in the ideas behind those sections and the holy season itself. So we're going to (and correct me if I get this wrong girls) slow down (maybe pause, maybe not, depending on schedules and real life commitments) the consistent analysis during Lent and focus instead on the way Love itself is presented and defined in these first three books. Just these first three books, no skipping ahead! I want to talk about family love and friendship and charity and hope..I know Jenna and Christie have a book's worth of thoughts to share on the topic, and I'm looking forward to your reflections as well! Excited? I am!</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">So I'm not going to go too much deeper into Lupin's Fatherly role toward Harry right now, but I love the scene Jenna references in her post:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> <i> Lupin manages what Snape never could have done: he makes Harry feel guilty for </i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> breaking the rules.
I'm not sure there's a more successful punishment in any of the </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> books
than Lupin's few, well-chosen words here. It's quite a powerful little </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> scene—it manages to make me feel like I took a deserved kick to the stomach, </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> and I didn't go sneaking off to Hogsmeade.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Lupin does manage that, doesn't he? And you know, I think part of the reason is that, as much as he does have obvious affection for Harry, and as much as he does sort of step into that father-role with Harry, he doesn't really treat Harry as <i>special</i>. We actually <i>see </i>him in this book relating with other students in a similar, affectionate, personal way. Snape treats Harry as special (especially awful, true, but <i>singled out</i>), Dumbledore, Hagrid, McGonagall, even Trelawney single him out. The Dursley's singled him out for mistreatment, and even Molly Weasley singles him out for the lion's share of her nurturing. But Lupin - even while giving him the extra lessons he needs - doesn't really treat Harry as special. He treats him very much like he treats Neville: as a boy in need of some extra help, a student that he as a teacher is trying to guide and help. It's refreshing to me, and it must be refreshing to Harry as well. To see an adult that is neither hostile nor indulgent reprimand him..Thank you professor Lupin!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmblqfzYAqGeTj0pHJHX2ZwTzKoQIUXt2IXFTVnOs9IxTvSkyCGbyZ8P3g6CwzWU5j4rEBEVx6Q0PE-qQO2rcDiLR2UAvD5HQKsCpST0fOL8jSk8KXt-vMC7gGVZDw2oX2W5MlPLgQsw/s1600/hipster+potter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjmblqfzYAqGeTj0pHJHX2ZwTzKoQIUXt2IXFTVnOs9IxTvSkyCGbyZ8P3g6CwzWU5j4rEBEVx6Q0PE-qQO2rcDiLR2UAvD5HQKsCpST0fOL8jSk8KXt-vMC7gGVZDw2oX2W5MlPLgQsw/s1600/hipster+potter.jpg" height="400" width="309" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.etsy.com/listing/177249144/harry-potter-hipster-espresso-patronum?utm_campaign=Share&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_source=Pinterest" target="_blank">source</a></td></tr>
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</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And I wonder with Jenna <i>"whether Snape knew who the mapmakers were. Obviously he didn't know what the map was, but did he recognize the names?" </i>She guesses that even if he didn't recognize the <i>names, </i>the personalities that came through were easily discernible..and I have to agree..even if he wasn't certain, he must have suspected - and having someone easily available who <i>did </i>know must have made him even more frustrated.. Poor Snape, everyone has a breaking point! It must have been a stress-filled year for him all things together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I'm also left feeling just a little badly for Malfoy. Not only does Harry win the match, not only does the fake dementor attack fail, not only does he lose 50 points in one afternoon, but he has to be the too-short guy, perched on his friend's shoulders and then knocked over by a huge, scary spell in front of the whole school! When you're in Slytherin, and you know everyone hates you anyway, it stings even more.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="You know, a friend once jokingly suggested to me that Edward Cullen's real name was Cedric Diggory, and he became a vampire when he was killed by Voldemort. In which case, we all have another reason to hate Voldemort. :/" class="pinImg fullBleed loaded" src="http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/236x/63/a5/39/63a53990668efb39fd23ccc050f125e0.jpg" style="height: 678px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; width: 460px;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this one's for you, Jenna ;)</td></tr>
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<br />Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-89760432906037589432014-02-25T11:02:00.000-05:002014-02-25T11:02:20.311-05:00Pretty Girls Have Inner Beauty, Too!<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I have a friend who is prettier than most. She's sort of exceptional-looking, dark hair and eyes, a taste for flattering clothes, musician's hands - but it's her skin that makes her stand out most of all. Her skin is nothing like my own; no sign of weather-damage or neglect, no blotchy-red response to sudden cold or heat. Instead it glows with just the right amount of inner-light, it seems forever well-tended, and looks softly made-up even freshly scrubbed clean. I covet the easy perfection of her skin; all the same, I've never wanted to look just like her, I'd rather look like myself - perfected.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Z_6lvIQXWzsjjv9n4i0hjwEkHMWsDzu3c9VajC4ktBgN6zlblxKsWiuhdbuGPCH8_oQ-91POz9_twre6fXbnW9WY2A0Y4CQX842zuD5tYH8Y0fyWAES7_ENAUIgK_N0em8wn-U478J8/s1600/emily+silver+screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6Z_6lvIQXWzsjjv9n4i0hjwEkHMWsDzu3c9VajC4ktBgN6zlblxKsWiuhdbuGPCH8_oQ-91POz9_twre6fXbnW9WY2A0Y4CQX842zuD5tYH8Y0fyWAES7_ENAUIgK_N0em8wn-U478J8/s1600/emily+silver+screen.jpg" height="293" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me..unperfected</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">My friend's beauty inspires me to try for my own best look. She reminds me, just by being herself, that caring for the <i>whole </i>body is a holy act. A way of blessing the people we love, ourselves, and the world around us. Because beauty is a gift meant to be shared.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Not everyone is interested in receiving that gift, however, and physical beauty has as many - or more - naysayers within the Church as architectural beauty. So many faithful Catholics want to leave behind the grand, rich, artful buildings and make their holy places streamlined, conference-centers housing a toned-down tabernacle; and many more - especially women - fight beauty in the bodily temple. They want to know why we bother with make-up at all, why we work to make our bodies living canvases for the Beauty of the Divine Love.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRFmMhC9U_IkY1GplhnDlVMxNNwACYwE3Cqxj5gpIKAWeNInOsmJfGyEMtQ754Ei9EQBGWX0sJJY0PTZXcbLY1cMD6T9-jp2yZE4Gj2A4pEmbpi0avNNNrD-hDMzgWTJz39e2ie5rT_s/s1600/home+and+ink+087.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRFmMhC9U_IkY1GplhnDlVMxNNwACYwE3Cqxj5gpIKAWeNInOsmJfGyEMtQ754Ei9EQBGWX0sJJY0PTZXcbLY1cMD6T9-jp2yZE4Gj2A4pEmbpi0avNNNrD-hDMzgWTJz39e2ie5rT_s/s1600/home+and+ink+087.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">It's not that I believe that people who are less than pretty are out of God's favor, or that the ridiculously good-looking are holy simply because of their looks. I don't insist on - or even necessarily encourage following the trends of the day - molding our bodies to the ever-shifting standards of perfection. What I <i>do </i>believe is that my body is a temple to the Holy Spirit, and that it is not enough to merely sweep the temple clean and wash the windows. The effort taken to dress and decorate the altar, to hang lights, and fill the walls with Icons and images is a holy effort - it glorifies God and gladdens His heart.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKHxVJvQCi91bgMcOZ9_nfiYOWJBMv0LnaXuxgSa9gU8dSoClriC3XhRppwww0zL37sf-a8JkQH-haZm2qehFEbQg751oorNUjQXE-fvBCvGP5f0piZ3GmhHUMRi2kY8bsPibNUmyNQs/s1600/the+altar+-+mater.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKHxVJvQCi91bgMcOZ9_nfiYOWJBMv0LnaXuxgSa9gU8dSoClriC3XhRppwww0zL37sf-a8JkQH-haZm2qehFEbQg751oorNUjQXE-fvBCvGP5f0piZ3GmhHUMRi2kY8bsPibNUmyNQs/s1600/the+altar+-+mater.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"> I'm sad when I hear women denigrate someone like my lovely friend, calling into question her 'inner beauty' because she finds it worthwhile to nurture the outer beauty as well - not, as some would assume, to seduce or distract the husbands of other women, nor to make those women jealous and miserable; but to delight God with the care she gives his temple, to delight her husband and to live out the vow <i>"with this body, I thee worship"</i>, and to make a fitting home for her own beautiful soul. Because, believing in our own inner-beauty requires us to let it show, doesn't it? Either with Byzantine Churches - the abundant old-style I prefer; or else in country chapels - white-washed and gleaming, but beautifully tended, however we house it.<i> </i></span>Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8550058566159443898.post-50433278605330605692014-02-24T08:18:00.000-05:002014-02-24T08:41:08.661-05:00Meditations on The Tarot: The Emperor IV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD5R6__Y3QTECArrxFpplRnKGTqZG_Lafjp6F4hs0_Pg9c0dz2tI7VPFxjZpVbSi84A3qDOFHgQtF-7uT3ZiLkCUeiJGZfV5gzvLs4ckcaAEOLvuANswprV1NE7V0Iwe4Z3ZRqnlnHWw/s1600/tarot+emperor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD5R6__Y3QTECArrxFpplRnKGTqZG_Lafjp6F4hs0_Pg9c0dz2tI7VPFxjZpVbSi84A3qDOFHgQtF-7uT3ZiLkCUeiJGZfV5gzvLs4ckcaAEOLvuANswprV1NE7V0Iwe4Z3ZRqnlnHWw/s1600/tarot+emperor.jpg" height="400" width="208" /> </a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"Freedom is the true throne of God and His cross at the same time. Freedom is the key to comprehension of the role of God in history..the God of Love and the God-King, without the sacrilege of making Him a tyrant and without the blasphemy of doubting His power.."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I like the Emperor in this card, he is a peaceful ruler - no sword, no retinue, just calm authority. He rules alone, like God..without needing the trappings of a court to give him power. Alone under the sky, we can see his authority - even unacknowledged, needs no force to defend it. He simply <i>is </i>The Emperor.."he has made a place in himself for the Divine Name" - and because of that self-established emptiness, he can receive authority. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><i>"Nature has a horror of emptiness..the spirit has a horror of fullness."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">I think about this as I look at the things I would like my life to be full of..good things, beautiful things, a life full-to-brimming; where is the Spirit in such a life? Does He get lost among the crowd? Do I mistake Him for something else, something easily replaceable? It is better to have lonely places in my heart - little rooms that I would have filled with all the blessings of life; tiny beds </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">to rest in as He waits for me to hear His voice.</span></div>
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<br />Mashahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06943998810222103926noreply@blogger.com0