It's been a slow week. The highlight of it has been playing tons of Scrabble with Sandi. I think we broke our record number of games yesterday by playing 2 in the morning and 5 that evening for a grand total of 7 games. By the end of the last game we were so beat mentally that we had to stop. LOL I think we both wonder what our endurance level can be and maybe we are gearing up to find out. I think it would be interesting to have an all day Scrabble marathon. Not that I could sit still that long but with planned breaks it might be possible. That probably means I might find a Scrabble competition interesting. So I guess I'll add that to the future things to do wish list.
Lately I've been working on planning a liturgy. It's part of my verger training and I'm helping our Associate Rector plan the All Saints service. We both feel we need to put an action in the service that makes the remembering significant to all. We also want to focus on remembering and, in doing so, celebrate the lives, rather than focus on the death, of those who've been saints in our lives and in our faith community.
In study to prepare for this planning, Matt asked me to read a chapter or two in a couple of books. The Book of Sacramental Basics by Tad Guzie really struck me as meaningful. I like the way Guzie breaks things down, moves from one point to the next in clear stages, and has vivid explanations or examples to illustrate each of his points. The man was a gifted teacher. I only read one chapter in the book and am thinking I need to find a copy for my own library as it will surely give me more food for thought. The other book I read in was Beyond Smell & Bells by Mark Galli. It's good but I liked the Guzie book better.
In a week I start another scoring project at Pearson. It will last from 2 to 3 weeks and it will feel nice to be busy again. My friend Jenny will be scoring on it too. Yay, company for lunch! The weather is cooling off and the daytime temperatures are down into the 90's. Yesterday we had rain and there is hope for some more today and possibly tomorrow.
Today's puzzle was so beautiful that I just had to share it. I find it very delicate and I love the contrast of pale yellow against the blue of the lavender flowers. Enjoy!
11 comments:
Wow, that is a beautiful puzzle! And I'm still recovering from yesterday! Loads of family pouring onto the homestead tomorrow for the Labor Day cookout...everyone here labors on Labor day, more's the pity! Glad that you are moving along with your Verger training. I'm proud of you!
Sandi
Thanks, Sandi! Hope you know that that pride goes both ways!
Don't feel alone in recovering from yesterday! I slept in! I think you would have but took the time for peace in your early morning hours provided by the solitude you found. And I'm delighted that you could!
Hope all goes smoothly for your Labor Day feast and that you don't wear yourself out in preparations. Even enjoyment of folk takes energy. So keep a bit back for seasoning throughout tomorrow.
Love,
Lee
That's a "chrysalis dream" of a puzzle, Lee.
The liturgy you're planning, making the remembering significant--how wonderful. That's the trick, to reinvigorate often repeated truths, so that they're heard. Really heard.
How wonderful of you to make that chrysalis connection in the puzzle! Thank you! I'd managed to focus on other things when I was writing this post so I'm doubly glad you pointed that our to me.
Reinvigorating, that's a good word. The act of finding something to produce significance is a challenge but I think that's part of what excites me about the planning process. That plus the fact that I'm learning so much in the process. Wow! :-)
Thanks for popping in San! Hug!!!
Salud!
Lee
Thanks for cool puzzle game. So you are in the gaming mode, that's sounds like me when playing puzzle games on line, and when I finally finish: I sweat, my butt in numb, lol, I feel dizzy, and I ask myself what did I just do....but that was me 2-3 years ago, Anna :)
LOL Yeah, Anna, that sounds like us too. At least one of us had a numb butt and I know we each took a while to recover mentally. Glad you liked the Puzzle!
Cheers!
All Saints, in tandem with dia de los muertos, is my favorite celebration: it's part of my yearly Birthday Week: I always kick it off with muertos and go right on up through my birthday on 11/6 and beyond. I look forward to your collaboration with Matt.
Yesterday, given Matt's rhythmic sermon and evocation of the Marcan gospel as a performance piece, I got a real sense of our entire liturgy as performance. It's been a growing sense over the past few months, and the notion helps me through passages that do very little for me. Much of the Nicene Creed, for example: I am at odds with so much of its "one and only-ness," but seen and spoken as part of a sacred "performance" gives it a different energy. As participants, we build and rebuild a sacred space every week.
Good luck in the planning and in the coming work.
Paschal, How cool that your birthday comes right on the heels of the saint days of remembrance. Early Happy Birthday!
I really liked Matt's rythmic sermon and the musicality subject of the children's sermon too. Don't feel alone on the lack of connectedness to the "high toned" ritualized bits of our services, I'm that way too. Coming from my charismatic roots days of new belief I much prefer a more direct approach to the service making it one between the congregants and God.
Learning about liturgies and how they are planned is so exciting and interesting. It takes me out of the listening mode in which I can be sometimes deaf to the implications and into reflection and building on understanding mode. So reaffirming!
Blessings my friend!
Beautiful puzzle. And it was real fun reading about all that you've been up to. Thank you for your comment, and you wouldn't mind if I stole this puzzle would you?
LOL Not at all Dolphin! Be my guest! Glad you liked it. You're welcome to the comment. Thank you for visiting back so quickly.
Cheers!
Nice Blog. Congrats.
-Zakir Ali ‘Rajnish’
{ Secretary-TSALIIM & SBAI }
[Editor- Children’s Poem & Adult’s Poem]
Post a Comment