T is for Transcendent

Just yesterday we returned from Pennsylvania, where we were blessed with a new goddaughter. The church her family attends has recently been beautifully restored after a fire. The icons that cover the walls and ceiling of the church are wonderful and a great joy to see. Being a very visual person, one of the things that drew me to the Orthodox Christian faith was its embrace of the visual and multi-sensory (a nicely holistic approach to worship), its use of icons to remind us of Christ's life and the lives of those believers before us. I love that when I enter an Orthodox church, I know I am in a church and that I am there to worship God; countless visual reminders help me focus on this fact. Some moments are truly transcendent.

Stash Moroccan green mint and Raspberry Zinger were the teas I enjoyed when not at church! They were a nice change. Of course, not much time was spent sipping tea on this trip. My husband spent quite a bit of time folding paper airplanes for our godkids to throw across the room, and we also spent time drawing and doing a little art project. The weather was delightfully cool compared to Houston. You can find more Tea Tuesday participants here.

Tea Tuesday

Very belatedly, I am sharing a little Chinese New Year goodie-box that a sweet friend gave to me this Tea Tuesday. Chinese New Year was six weeks ago! One of the packets contains green tea, but they're all so cute, colorful, and unique that I haven't been able to bring myself to open any of the candy or tea yet. I'm just enjoying looking at it! The little coins have symbols embossed on them that stand for various New Year's greetings: good luck, prosperity, etc. We'd gone to lunch that day at a Chinese restaurant with crunchy egg rolls flavored with sesame oil (one of my favorites), jasmine tea, and a delicious chicken and noodle dish. I love that tea is very much a multi-cultural affair, one that crosses boundaries easily from one country to the next.

Thanks to bleubeard and elizabeth for mentioning my blog today - she has quite a fun blog herself!

As an Orthodox Christian, this week is the high point of the year: Holy Week, leading to the feast of feasts, or Pascha. I am looking forward to attending services this week and then staying up all night Saturday as we celebrate with a midnight Liturgy! A blessed Easter/Pascha to all of you!

Monastery Tea

I've been meaning to join Kimmie at Art in Red Wagons for Tuesday Tea for quite some time, given how much tea I drink! This weekend we finally visited St. Paraskevi Monastery up near Brenham, Texas. Unfortunately we forgot our camera, or I would share some photos. Their temple was astoundingly beautiful, radiating peace and quiet. My husband and I and two friends from church were the only visitors that day, perhaps owing to the rare chilly weather. The abbess kindly visited with us for quite some time, sharing stories about the founding of her original monastery in Greece and plans for her monastery in Texas. She brewed a delicious pot of Greek mountain tea for us, which I'd never before had. It was lovely! Fortunately, they sell it in their bookstore so I was able to bring some home. The nuns served a delicious meal to us that included some of their homemade feta cheese and wine from the winery that helps press their own grapes. We were blessed to spend a few hours there. At home yesterday, I brewed some of their tea and added honey from St. Tikhon's Monastery in Pennsylvania in my new Charley Harper mug. I am sure this tea will always remind me of a chilly Texas day under the pine trees.

Glimpses of Heaven

I wanted to share a few photos of the absolutely lovely interior of All Saints OCA in Northeast PA. We worshipped there with our friends and godkids during our visit at Thanksgiving. Several years ago a fire destroyed the interior of the temple; they have slowly been restoring the iconography and are nearing completion. Unfortunately, our camera chose this moment to stop working, so we only got a few shots. But I think they are enough to show how beautiful it is. I love being surrounded by images of fellow Christians and biblical figures who have gone before me when I worship; it very much provides a sense of continuity and timelessness. I love how you know that you are standing in the presence of God in an Orthodox church; there is no question as to what the purpose of the building is. We also attended vespers at St. Tikhon's Monastery the evening before and the peacefulness and beauty of the service was much-needed spiritual refreshment. We hated to have to leave. But no matter which Orthodox church I am in, I always encounter a spirit of peacefulness and awe when I am there. I am thankful for those moments with God.

Magical Surprises

Last Friday, the very unexpected happened: it snowed in Houston. All day long. The flakes here were fat and fluffy, and enough accumulated to turn the yard white. This is a rare gift that I very likely will not see again in my time here. It made me quite happy and very tickled - what a joyful treat!

Today, looking at these pictures, I can't help but think about the unexpected snow as a metaphor for other unexpected good things: the upcoming feast of the Nativity, when God took on human flesh and was born in a manger, for one. I'm also thinking of changes that I've seen in people's lives and how heartwarming it can be. And even some changes in my own life. Spiritually, if you would have told me eleven years ago that I would soon become an Orthodox Christian and spend afternoons like today listening to the Paraklesis service sung by Eikona, I would have not taken you seriously. But God and life can surprise us - just like the snow did a few days ago!

Are you enjoying any unexpected events lately?

Back to School Kits

For several years I've intended to put together school kits to send to IOCC to be distributed to kids around the world who need them. This year, I finally did. The kits averaged about $5.00 per child - the scissors and pencil sharpeners being the bulk of that expense. What you see in the photo is all you need, plus a bag to put it all in. I purchased re-usable shopping bags and used fabric glue to attach three-inch strips of velcro near the top in order to provide the required closure on the bag. I plan to ship the kits at FedEx, which typically has much better rates than the USPost for large packages.

I've also noticed that local charities are collecting school supplies for needy kids as well. This option wouldn't require shipping!

I really believe in not showing off about whatever good deeds we do, but I also wanted to share just how simple it was to do this little project and perhaps challenge you to take advantage of the good sales and help some less fortunate kids begin their school year on the right foot. Please share any other ideas or programs you might know about!

A Rural Secret

I have a secret. More and more these days I find myself wishing that I was a rancher. Shocking, I know. Who would secretly wish for such a hard lifestyle, up all night in blizzards pulling calves from their momma’s birth canals, hauling hay and water, living in isolation? I’m sure I’m idealizing the lifestyle. But I certainly do admire the personal strength it takes to live like that and envy the strong communities that can evolve in rural life. Echoes of this community filtered into the small church we grew up in. I can’t locate it now, but a recent survey showed that sense of community is much stronger in the Dakotas and other rural states than in more urban areas. Yes, independence and a don’t-tell-me-what-to-do attitude are also strong up there, but I think the sense of community stems from the fact that people really have to rely on each other in such extreme conditions as rural life demands, and this carries over into the town folk as well. A life lived outdoors also seems to have a profound effect on people’s realities. I do know that I have not found the same sense of community anywhere else I’ve lived.

I’ve read several memoirs this spring that have made me think a bit more about this. They include The Perfection of the Morning, Refuge, and A Country Year. I don’t know that I would recommend any of them as great reading, but I enjoyed them because they hit upon topics that I think often about. Refuge was certainly the best written of the group, but it and Perfection did annoyingly get new-agey and earth mother/goddess/wackily eco-feminist at times. I’m gearing up to read the memoir Buffalo for the Broken Heart, by a South Dakota rancher and noted fiction writer, and I suspect it will be the best of the bunch.

So, one morning my sister, stepmom, two-year-old nephew, and I visited Old MacDonald’s Farm in the Black Hills, where I had the time of my life with all the animals, especially the calves and goats. We pass so many herds of cattle and calves on our road trips that it’s always nice to actually be able to touch them up close. My other secret is that I am thinking more and more these days about what it means to eat meat and trying to figure out how to approach it in a healthy, humane manner. Orthodox monastics are vegetarians for a reason!

What are your thoughts on these topics?

Pascha Morning

I’m always thankful for Orthodox Holy Week and Pascha (aka Easter; Pascha is the Greek translation of the Hebrew pesach; both mean Passover, which is so appropriate). Amazingly, we have passed through them already, after our journey through Lent. I am thankful for the quietness of Holy Week and the opportunity to focus particularly on the foundation of our faith; I am thankful for the exuberant joy of Pascha as we celebrate the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord, the harrowing of Hell. Pascha is the only night of the year where I’ll stay up until 4 a.m., celebrating the Liturgy and then a potluck with our church family. It is a joyous time.

Early Pascha morning, I found myself chasing off death in the form of the neighbor’s black cat, who’d ventured into our yard to try to rob the mockingbird nest. I was awoken by the cat screeching as the parent birds showed their anger, so I quickly dressed and ran outside in the dark to chase the cat off. With a flashlight, I spent the next 45 minutes looking for the baby birds. I am happy to report that I found them, darling little fledglings who were not quite ready to fly but close to it. I held one in my hand after I caught him; he gazed at me with his dark eyes with solemnity, his beak and legs much larger than I’d expected. In fact, his little feet wrapped tightly around my fingers. It was quite touching. I put him back in the nest, which was built in our lovely jasmine vines right near the bedroom windows. The other one escaped me and ran into the thick nandina bushes. They peeped their pitiful distress calls and cried all morning, and eventually their parents started feeding them again. I even called a wildlife refuge center in case we needed to take them in. I humbled myself the next day by walking into a dog salon and asking for a bag of dog hair to spread along my fence line to keep the cats out. They seemed to think it would work. My own dog endured many hits in his rear end from the adult birds; it was actually very funny to see his surprise and shock each time; of course he was not injured. I am so happy to report that the baby birds are now up in the trees, not adept fliers but at least gaining competence. So far, the story has a happy ending.

Noticing

Aloe vera blossoms taken in my backyard last week. The former owner of this house must have planted a house plant she'd grown tired of. The aloe is located all by itself in an odd corner, but it grows well and blooms like this a couple of times a year.

I am stalling today, slowly avoiding doing the things I know I need to do. It is warm here in Texas, and at 90% humidity. This makes me a little crabby. Updating my address book just now, I am reminded of a few small gestures that seemed to mean more to the recipients than I anticipated. I want to remember these, to remember that something that seems small to me can mean so much to someone I’m thinking of. In one instance, I wrote a Christmas card/thank-you note to the woman who volunteers as the bookstore coordinator at our church. She left a very warm, touching voicemail for me later that day thanking me. It stopped me in my tracks and made me wish I’d done more than just give her a card: perhaps brought in something baked or a gift certificate. Likewise, I took a loaf of banana bread to a woman in our neighborhood who keeps our phone list updated. Again, I later found an extremely warm, grateful voicemail from her. Their thankfulness was so touching to me and was almost humbling; I felt that my little gestures did not deserve such thanks. But it was also affirming and reminded me that it is worth it to do little things. So often it seems that most people don’t notice small courtesies or bother to really listen to each other, but moments like these remind me that it’s worth it to strive to let others know that we appreciate them, even if it’s just sending them a card. To me, a big part of Christianity is stopping to notice others for real, not with just a passing glance, to listen to them and acknowledge their presence by being fully present myself. Of course, this is sometimes easier said than done, depending upon how tired, preoccupied, or stressed out I am.

Have you found yourself in either the giving or receiving end in these sorts of situations? I’d love to hear.

Happy New Year

Just popping in to say hello! I hope everyone had a delightful, peaceful Christmas. Ours certainly was. I had a lot that I wanted to share today, but I've been cleaning all weekend, buying groceries, etc., in preparation for my in-laws' arrival tonight from Ohio, and I find myself a bit brain-drained! I will mention, though, that I've finally made a good dent in Acedia & Me by Kathleen Norris. (excerpt here) (In case you are not familiar with her, she had several books on the bestseller lists a decade or so ago, mostly dealing with religion and, a personal favorite topic of mine, living in western South Dakota.) Acedia & Me was a bit slow to get into, but now I'm finding myself absolutely fascinated by the connections she's making between acedia and so many of the issues in our society. I'm sure there are other interviews out there, but you can find one here. I'm marking lines on nearly every page and will likely read it again soon so I can more fully grasp the concepts. So much of what she writes is resonating with me, although she does write from a somewhat different tradition of Christianity than I am in.

I was blessed with many thoughtful gifts this Christmas. One I want to mention for my Orthodox friends is Mary the Mother of God: Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas, edited by Christopher Veniamin and available from Mount Thabor Publishing at St. Tikhon's Monastery. I began this book this summer while visiting friends (who subsequently sent it and two other books from the series for my gift!) and found it insightful, entralling, and well translated/edited. I am eager to complete the book and the other ones that came with it. I read so much fiction this fall that I decided to force myself to return to non-fiction for a time.

I will be back next week with more photos and more to share. I wish all of you a wonderful beginning to 2009!

Sharing the Season

Renee invites all of us to share the ways in which we are preparing for Christmas, focusing specifically on what does not involve shopping. I thought this was a worthwhile topic, especially taking time to consider the non-shopping part of it. This is quite a bit longer than my usual posts!
For Orthodox Christians, Advent (Nov 15 – Dec 24) is a period of spiritual preparation before we celebrate the birth of Christ. This can involve many things, such as fasting (not eating meat and/or dairy; by learning to control what we eat, hopefully we are also learning to control our anger, gossip, jealousy, etc.), cutting down on our television time, spiritual examination and meeting with our priest to talk about things we’re struggling with (ie, confession, which I’ve ironically found to be quite healing and liberating in spite of my resistance to the idea before we chose to join the church), sharing our resources with those in need, and increased prayer. I’m far from perfect in any of these areas, but they do lend a peace and quiet to the season which is so often needed, as well as help us focus on the source of the holiday.

This year we are making a point to take in a few local Christmas concerts, which is something my family often did. I miss this habit and am looking forward to it.

I quite adore Christmas music and play it often: Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Wintersong, A South Dakota Acoustic Christmas, and others. I need to find some Orthodox Christmas recordings!

I’d also been hoping for a chance to volunteer at a local shelter this season and we had that opportunity last weekend, stacking donated cans of food in the pantry at a women and children’s emergency shelter. Nothing makes you realize how many blessings you have as coming face to face with those in desperate need. I share this in order to encourage you to consider donating or helping out at a local shelter or food bank this season.

Eventually we will get around to decorating. My husband gets quite excited about putting up a tree. As children, our family always bought tree permits and went out into the forest to chop down our own tree. That was a delightful tradition.

We try to take an evening to drive around and admire Christmas lights in the neighborhood.

And yes, I quite enjoy making as many handmade gifts as I can, so I hope to begin on that soon. I also like sending out cards, so that is also on the list. All our gifts are shipped out, so I’ll also be making an epic journey to the post office…

Finally, we celebrate with a midnight service on Christmas Eve, followed by a massive potluck with our church family. We’ll spend lots of time on the phone with our family that day, and will spend the next week cleaning the house for my in-law’s visit at New Year’s. It is a joyful time of year!

How are you preparing for Christmas?

Remembering What's Important

This topic is a little bit removed from what I usually post about, but these stories are so poignant and touching that I wanted to share them with you. It's lives such as these that remind me to wake up and pay attention to what's really important; to savor my relationships and grow my faith while I'm blessed to walk on this earth. These women are true heroes, living courageously and joyfully in the face of their illnesses.

A friend recently shared this with me, she and her husband having known Amy's husband during college:

http://www.kare11.com/news/investigative/extras/extra_article.aspx?storyid=519872&catid=26

This story has inspired and spoken to many in the Orthodox Christian Church during the last few years, as well as to many others:

http://www.conciliarpress.com/products/Lynette_s_Hope_The_Witness_of_Lynette_Katherine_Hoppe_s-478-0.html

May they inspire us to pray for them and their families, as well as awaken our commitment to lives well-lived.

1998

How my path has meandered in the last decade. As is so often said, where has the time gone? Summer 1998 saw me boarding an Amtrak train in western North Dakota (the closest stop to us, and not even in our own state!), taking the train across the West to Northern California to follow my boyfriend and seek my first post-undergraduate employment. Uncertainty and excitement marked that summer.

I’ve been blessed with a laidback life these days that fits my quiet personality. It’s hard to believe that I, a humble South Dakotan, ever competed with Ivy League grads for publishing jobs in the San Francisco area (I did find one!) and also volunteered many hours as a research assistant at a leading university. I also somehow amazingly made it in the tough rental market there, with some interesting, if not wonderful, renting experiences. We wandered North Beach often and drove to the coast nearly every weekend. It was a lovely time.

This summer was also the first time that we visited an Orthodox Christian church, a step that would lead us down a very unexpected path and to a new spiritual home.

I learned a lot that year. A lot came in between that year and now: a few more moves, marriage, grad school, becoming Orthodox, godchildren, a nephew, stepparents, lots of road trips. I’m a bit nostalgic for the newness of being on my own in a charming place, but I’m sure more adventures await.

How has your life changed in the last decade? What was 1998 like for you?

Goddaughter

It seems the last two months have been filled with more good things and meaningful, affirming experiences with family and friends than I can fully appreciate and take in! We recently returned from an incredibly blessed trip to the Northeast, where we baptized our new goddaughter, among other smaller adventures. We were smitten with her sweet, smiley personality and amusing five-month-old ways. Watching our godsons, her two older brothers, interact with her was also amusing and quite sweet. We have now been good friends with their parents for five years; I am grateful for the way in which old friendships such as theirs ground us and provide a sense of stability, even when we can’t talk or see each other very often due to geographical distance. I always wanted another sister, so it’s even more rewarding to have friends who’ve become such a big part of our lives that they are like family.

My godchildren have influenced me greatly and taught me many things, mostly about love and what it means to be a grown-up. If I had more eloquent words, I would try to describe the humbling, profound privilege of serving as Orthodox godparents; right now all I can do is smile, a bit misty-eyed, remembering each of their baptisms and the delightful way they have made a home in our hearts, praying that they will grow into the fullness of the faith in the years ahead.

Icon Workshop: Completed Icon

Well, here it is: the icon of Christ that I completed the other week in a workshop. It's 13 x 17 inches (see previous posts for materials used.) I'm still a bit shy about displaying my work. I love doing the garments on icons but still struggle a bit with the faces. I may go back and do a few touchups on his face.

American iconographers are moving toward using more English on the icons (for obvious reasons!), but the abbreviations on Christ's icons are universal and are usually kept in Greek. A brief explanation: 'IC XC' are the abbreviations for Jesus Christ. The Greek letters in the halo mean, "I am the one Who is."

The large clusters of letters on each side of the halo spell Pantocrator. From wiki: The most common translation of Pantocrator is "Almighty" or "All-powerful." In this understanding, Pantokrator is a compound word formed from the Greek words for "all" and the noun "strength" (κρατος). This is often understood in terms of potential power; i.e., able to do anything, or omnipotent. Another, less literal translation is "Ruler of All" or "Sustainer of the World."

I'm off to take another workshop next week, although I'm not sure yet who the subject of my icon will be!

Icon Workshop Day Three

This is what my icon looked like about halfway through the day yesterday. Any guesses as to whom the subject of the icon is? It is near completion now and just awaits final touches tomorrow. We make our own paint from egg yolks and ground mineral pigments such as cadmium yellow and red, ultramarine blue, red oxide, burnt sienna, etc. It can be a tricky process!

Icon Workshop Day One

It's a bit hard to tell from this photo, but today we laid the groundwork for our icons in my most recent workshop. We begin by tracing a pattern onto the specially prepared panel; once it's traced on, we incise the lines with a sharp tool. We then place several layers of shellac around the image before applying the gilding size. After the gilding size dries enough, we apply 23 K gold leaf to the background. You can see the small squares of paper that the gold leaf comes on scattered around the icon. We carefully brush off the odd bits of gold leaf and gently burnish the surface. Tomorrow, we begin painting with egg tempera!

Pascha

"Come ye, receive the Light, that is never overtaken by the night. Come, glorify the Christ, risen from the dead." These are the words we thrill to hear sung when the priest comes into the entirely darkened sanctuary with a sole lit candle, the flame of which is then spread from candle to candle among the congregants, their magical glow slowly filling the room. This is the joyous, triumphant conclusion to many weeks of fasting and spiritual examination as we prepare to celebrate the reason for our Faith. It truly is the most joyful day of the year. Our celebration begins at church at 10 p.m. on Saturday night, followed by a huge potluck into the wee hours of the morning.

A blessed Pascha to my fellow Orthodox friends!

Pattern

At first glance, this photo of frozen onion rings certainly appears to have nothing in common with Holy Week (the Eastern Orthodox church uses a different calendar than the western church, so our Easter is a month later this year.) While laying the onion rings out to bake the other day, I was oddly struck by the strong circular pattern they made on the cookie sheet – struck enough to pull out the camera. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about the pattern and repetition of certain events throughout my life, both good and bad. It was nine years ago that we attended our very first Holy Thursday service back in Northern California at an Arab Christian church, one of the most profound and moving experiences of my life. This first Holy Thursday service remains, in my mind, the touchstone of my subsequent Holy Week services. Remembering it, commemorating it, provides a rhythm to keep me connected to the glimpses of mystery and grace in life, however tenuous they may seem at times. The pattern of grace helps so much to balance out the counter pattern of less positive events and struggles.