wild animal 5

wild animal 5 on the revgals site

mompriest asks, "For this Friday Five, share with us a wild animal story from your life. Or if you've never had such an encounter share with us your five favorite animals, and why. Bonus for videos and photos!"

and I'm lovin' this one; I've experienced no wild animal encounters that I can recall, but I have a lot of favorite critters, so here's a sampling:

1. big cats beauty, mystery, variety, independence, dignity, a sense of self beholden to no one...

2. little cats beauty, mystery, variety, independence, dignity, a sense of self beholden to no one...

3. giraffes style, quirkiness, speechlessness...

4. elephants intelligence, socialness, expressiveness...

5. horses beauty, heart, loyalty, mystery...

50 fun things

1. a new notebook
2. InDesign CS4
3. #ffcc66
4. a flurry of country colors
5. Santa Ana winds
6. patchwork quilts
7. beach sand
8. prairies and plains
9. [especially camel] corduroy
10. daybreak

11. painted furniture
12. fireworks!
13. blackberries [and the brambles that hold them]
14. vanilla
15. cooper black
16. fajita burritos
17. mechanical action organs
18. brightly decorated stoneware
19. cmd + z
20. flip-flops

21. cotton cargos [pants, shorts and skirts]
22. desert southwest
23. rhubarb cobbler

24. first light
25. excellent exegesis
26. Beethoven sonatas
27. crashing waves
28. fresh creamery butter
29. big cats
30. little cats

31. sunrise
32. varalaksami threads
33. colorblocked anything
34. french horn
35. coconut pineapple ice cream
36. dial soap
37. warm winter sweaters
38. Utah
39. salad!
40. new beginnings

41. helvetica bold
42. nachos
43. "how crayolas are made"
44. espaghettis
45. red sox nation!
46. gmail themes
47. cucumbers! make my salads and sandwiches taste so fresh
48. dawn
49. vespers: magnificat
50. city lights

soundtracks of our lives 5

soundtracks of our lives 5 on the RevGals site

Mary Beth brings us today's timely talkin' 'bout topic:

"The sad news of Michael Jackson's untimely death has me thinking about music and its effects on us - individually, as cultures, as generations. Let's think about the soundtracks of our lives..."

1) as a child I mostly heard standard-issue classical and top 40 playing in the background, nothing especially esoteric.

2) no particular song says "high school" when I hear it, but sort of on my own I'd started listening to music that had an edge of social consciousness as well as that era's top 40 and alternative music. by then studio recording was making huge and imaginative advances! it's too early to think of any title at the moment, but you get the idea. in high school I also started serious piano lessons...

3) my favorite music lift me up from a down day tends to be either something profound like a Beethoven Symphony (esp 1, 2, 4 or 7) or an energetic oldie like Dire Straits' "Walk of Life" or Huey Lewis and the News' "Power of Love." The von Karajan Beethoven performances seem to have stayed on YouTube despite the newer policy of shorter videos and due to the way favorites keep disappearing I'm not linking to my current Walk of Life or Power of Love fave, but you get the idea.

4) just one, only a single favorite performer of all time? a few: Tracy Chapman, Jewel Kilcher, Boston Symphony Orchestra...

5) my favorite style of music for worship remains just about everything with the exceptions of most 19th century hymnody and the usually popular tunes of Taizé. For my bonus I'm linking to this vid that has been rocking my world every since I first heard it. The Northwest Missouri State University Tower Choir...

Let Everything that hath Breath, Praise the Lord!

"you and I must make a pact; we must bring salvation back - just call my name and I'll be there..."

5 about moving and changing

moving and changing on the revgals...

This is from Sally, and I'm taking it as being about moving house and I'm writing in pentecostal red for the fire that purifies along with the wind that blows out the old, brings in the new. I love to move! On one Friday 5 one of the questions was how many times we'd moved and I've done it lots.

1. one thing (only one?) I cannot possibly part with is...my stack of academic transcripts and letters of call. But there also are quite a few dishes and decorations I'd absolutely have to take with me, too.

2. for a gladly leave behind I'll choose the bathroom towels that have been washed lots of times and faded too much to look fresh. Also, replacing them is not very expensive, making giving them away to the local vet an excellent choice (they go through lots and lots and bleach them every time they wash them, so they always welcome more).

3. to prepare for a move, my

a.practical tactics include list, list, and more lists. Deciding and acquiring more boxes and packing material than I think I'll need. Label everything carefully, too. When I moved from City of History to the Intermountain West I used a professional mover, but my scheme still was almost the same.
b. and the spiritual emotional lists, lists, and even more lists.

4. in a new place I first try to find locally owned, less-expensive restaurants; the nearest mall, and the library. Go outside and walk randomly; go for a drive and check out the lay of the land, get accustomed to this new to me territory.

5. typically I settle in easily and take a whole lot of time to get acclimated. For an example of this both/and...I love the excitement of acquiring the few things you always seem to need in a new place, rediscovering a few things I'd almost forgotten I had, waking up in a new place and tweaking my morning routine and rearranging new to me spaces. However, I also tend to be almost consumed or at least concerned by memories of the place I recently lived and just left.

poetry party 35: light and shadow

poetry party 36


comment: this actually is Christine's poetry party 36; my numbering was incorrect because I'd forgotten I hadn't played last time.

Abbey of the Arts Invitation to Poetry: poetry party 36

Christine asks us to consider, "In the brilliant light of days growing longer, what do we encounter in the shadows that may have been hidden to us before? What do you discover in the interplay between shadow and light?"

lights, brights, shadows, opaques...

as an artist
every day I consider degrees of
opacity transparency
shimmers of revelation
to include in each design project
80% opacity or
20% transparency
and which colors to use

as a person
every day I consider
degrees of transparency and opacity
to present to the world
80% opacity or 20% translucence
a colorless hint of an outline of a self-revealing

but sometimes grace intervenes
spirits away the shadows
and I show far more
than intended
and the end result is just fine

bug life 5

a bug's life friday 5 on the RevGals site

everyone knows about timeliness and timelessness, and Sophia introduces today's 5 by recollecting:

As I was walking the beach today, I was surprised and delighted to find it swarming with ladybugs. The sweet little red beetles are one of my favorite insects and also my daughter's blogname...In that spirit, this week's Friday Five is a magical mystery tour through God's garden of creepy crawlies!

Here's my almost insta-play for today:

1. I'm not sure if I use any particular regional terminology, but I was born in the Deep South and essentially grew up in New England with grandparents raised in Michigan and Mississippi, who often referred to farms they'd had in Nebraska and North Carolina, so lately I've been wondering how on earth they got to New England. Therefore, Ladybugs and Pillbugs and this is the first time I've heard about Jesus bugs or water skeeters.
2. spiders I can't peacefully co-exist with get transported outside.
3. butterflies and ladybugs and dragonflies are my favorite insects for today.
4. least favorite? none...ummm...better make that "cockroaches." My grandmother clearly let me know about the complex and essential interrelatedness and interdependence of all creation.
5. good bug stories and anecdotes! For starters, today I'm wearing ladybug earrings. Also, although I last saw my apparently recently-deceased biological father when I was about 5, he had a PhD in entomology and worked as an entomologist for the US Forest Service. My aforementioned grandmother, one of the more curious, knowledgeable and well-informed people I've ever known was 8th grade educated but frequently said she would have become an entomologist if she'd had an opportunity to continue her education. My final vignette is bitter memories of the gorgeous, complex bug project I worked so hard on in HS biology and that the teacher insisted on holding on to almost forever. She refused to return anyone's project, but told us if we came back to visit in 10 years or so she might give them back.

I think that response also qualifies for an answer to the Bonus question: share a poem, song, quotation, etc. about insects.

poetry party 34: illustrated!

poetry party 34: gifts of creation

Abbey of the Arts: poetry party 34


Christine invites us "to write poems in honor of the gift of earth and the ways God is revealed to you through stone or mountain, flower or fruit. Let this be your hymn of praise to creation." I added a title to one of my favorite photographs of Nick's backyard garden in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood: poetry party 34

Gifts of Creation

these plants remind me
life is persistent
they tell me I share history
with Nick
with the city of Boston
with the ground
with all creation
with the entire people of God
everywhere in every time

these plants remind me
easter dawn rises
from the heart of the earth
resurrection happens after death

these plants remind me
the ground holds nutrients
that generate life

this image reminds me
the land has nurtured my own gifts
by providing a place
and physical stuff

this image reminds me
creation does not discriminate
but freely offers life to all

these plants remind me
the church is moving into
the green and growing season
called ordinary time

poetry party 33

Abbey of the Arts Poetry Party 33


Christine observes,

...We celebrate Easter for a full 50 days, days that slowly grow longer in the Northern hemisphere and more vibrant as the blossoming of the world unfolds around us. ... I invite you to write a poem (or other form of reflection) about what your practices of resurrected life might look like. How would it feel to really embody resurrected life in your own being? If you made a commitment for the Easter season to complement your Lenten commitment, where is the invitation you discover?

practicing resurrection
living "as if" it is Easter
being and basking
in the subtle sheen of
early Easter dawn
that always surprises

but this is Easter
this is Pentecost
this is the reign of the Spirit of Life!

Christ has died;
Christ is Risen;
Christ will come again.

how do we forget so quickly and easily?
how do we keep living "as if?"
how do we follow the Risen One?

remember the witness of scripture...
"while it was still dark, the stone was rolled away!"

pudding 5

from Songbird we have today's (hasty) pudding 5

1. I really love puddings of almost every kind: chocolate, fudge, vanilla, pistachio, bread, rice, tapioca...

2. in terms of the class blanc mange variety, cooked is way better but instant or a Hunt Club or Kraft's pre-made is fine, too

3. corn pudding or figgy pudding? both, but bread pudding is my most favorite

4. I've never finger painted with pudding

5. what is the matter with A. A. Milne's Mary Jane? she doesn't want pudding at all! she wants her namesake Marijuana!

no bonus from me today, but later on I'll try to retrieve and post my fave bread pudding recipe.

King of Glory, King of Peace

King of glory, King of peace,
I will love thee;
and that love may never cease,
I will move thee.
Thou hast granted my request,
thou hast heard me;
thou didst note my working breast,
thou hast spared me.

Wherefore with my utmost art
I will sing thee,
and the cream of all my heart
I will bring thee.
Though my sins against me cried,
thou didst clear me;
and alone, when they replied,
thou didst hear me.

Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee;
in my heart, though not in heaven,
I can raise thee.
Small it is, in this poor sort
to enroll thee:
e'en eternity's too short
to extol thee.

George Herbert, published posthumously in The Temple, 1633

poetry party 32: from dust to dust

abbey of the arts poetry party 32


from dust to dust

Ash Wednesday
cascading memories
Mississippi Delta dirt
Nana's zinnias
daffodils springing from Salem soil
on to the university greenhouse
begonias in living room flowerpots
digging troughs for tulips on 5th avenue
Heather's perennials
Nick's greenery
condo complex landscape committee
Ash Wednesday
liturgy and another memory
I am dust and
starlight and
golden
Jesus takes us back to the garden