Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Happy Easter!

 A glorious Friday after Easter! Easter morning's rising sun shone gold and pink on a green and blue spring day, heralding the Risen Son. A day to celebrate and rejoice!

How grateful I am to be reminded again and again of my dependence on the Lord.  Yet again I have limped through Lent only to be reminded of the goodness of grace given even when undeserved. 

Who can ever be worthy of a sunny spring day? The beauty of ephemeral wildflowers never fails to delight. The mystery of Resurrection is annually reenacted in the woods and on the altar, along the waterways and roads, and in our hearts. A liturgical year tied to the seasons is part of God's wisdom, and although we well know that it is not spring on the other side of the globe, there is still the rejoicing at a rainbow or a flowers during the rainy season to remind us that darkness and clouds are necessary for joy. Failure is necessary for success. Sleep precedes rising. Labor pains precede birth. Death accompanies birth as generations pass on; the new generation consoles the old as they see the perpetuation of love in their offspring. 

We spent our Easter celebration at my parents' farm with four generations. Although I would have loved to stay for the liturgies at our parish or on campus because I knew a few people, including one of my students, who were receiving sacraments at the Easter Vigil Mass, we decided to spend the weekend with family, which was just as special. 

Much of our conversation over the weekend centered on the revival happening in the Church. My daughter said she heard at Easter Sunday Mass that over a million people were received into the church this Easter.  My daughter-in-law attended the Vigil to celebrate a family member's confirmation, along with 99 others. There were 79 catechumens welcomed at the Vigil on campus. I heard it lasted over three hours. Everywhere the same story is being told: young people, and older ones, are returning to the faith. 

Some thoughts on causes for these conversions: a desire for meaning, for belonging, for grace, for something real, for truth, for beauty... One student of mine suggested desire for identity and culture at the root of this seeking for God - or being called by Him. Another student said that since Covid people have wanted community. Perhaps as creation is threatened, people are turning to a Creator.  Perhaps AI may be driving people to seek substance, incarnation, presence. Perhaps people are asking what makes them human and finding God. Perhaps people are recognizing that we are more than just the material of our bodies, that our capacities to love and to forgive and to imagine and to create are the ways we are images of God. That love exists suggest a God who loves. That we have free will means we need a Savior.  The Gospel story continues to call to the world to repent and begin again. The sacrificial love of Christ requires a response.  Or perhaps the Holy Spirit is working in the world in ways beyond our understanding. Whatever the cause of this renewal, it's a reason to hope. 

In between feasting, hunting eggs, and indulging in all of the good things we had fasted from for the previous 40+ days, we also admired wildflowers while on a couple short hikes in the woods and reveled in the adorableness of our granddaughter, who reminded us of the gift of life and the blessing of simple pleasures - sunshine, flowers, nourishment, and trust in the goodness of the world. Alleluia!

Spring Beauties find life on a fallen tree

Hepatica

Home for many life forms

Meandering through the mayapples

This woods is one of few old growth forests in Indiana. 

Trillium everywhere

 

Redbuds in bloom

Violets and phlox

Goldenwort

Blue skies and cartwheels on Easter Monday

Curls

Sprinting through Spring

 Ah April! 

Really, the poets who call it cruel are being paradoxical, right? It's hard to be unhappy this time of year. I've been rereading Anne of Green Gables with the youngest, and I tend to agree with Anne that it is difficult to be sad or lonely this time of year when everything is fresh and green and blooming. My garden looks better than ever after some soaking rains and a good dose of fertilizer. The echinacea returned, the daisies are flourishing, the impatiens have filled out - they'll last until the first long stretch of heat, but so far we have escaped that. My raised bed has been consumed by slugs, so I need to replant some peppers and lettuces, but I have a happy rosemary bush and new growth on the oregano.

Although there are many things, like battling weeds and missing my kids and friends, that I could dwell in self-pity for - and have, during the winter -  the spring season and wildflowers blooming makes it easier to bear now. I did miss my young adults for Easter, but I was happy for them that they were able to enjoy each other's company and tease me about their gifts. The candy arrive late and melted, squished into mailing boxes that were too small and smashed. Apparently, Nana had enough sweets to satisfy a small army, so no one felt the loss of the Haribos and Swedish Fish and peach rings and all the other terrible artificial stuff they love. I never did find Cadbury mini eggs or even regular Cadbury eggs. I never found all black Brach's jelly beans or chocolate marshmellow eggs or bunnies. What is going on in the candy world? Or is it just the stores near us? 

What we did find is a way to celebrate Easter with the other side of the family. After an exciting day at the track and a good visit with all the track friends, a day marked by PR's in the 4x400 and 4x200, we went to the Vigil Mass. There was enough time to shower and relax and to mark a shift in attitude and arrive in plenty of time for the Easter fire. We had 10 catechumens, so the vigil lasted over 3 hours, but it was beautiful and celebratory; the trumpets fanfared, the lillies perfumed, the candles lit the darkness and melted wax on the pews in front of us. The alleluias echoed joyously.  The Easter vigil really is the culmination of months of preparation and reminds us of the cyclical way that we die and rise many times over throughout our lives. 

This is what I have felt the last couple of weeks - a resurrection of sorts after a gloomy winter. Maybe it's hormonal, maybe it's grace. I like to trust it to the second - how else to survive the first!

 After the vigil we feasted - my husband on a piece of meat, me on champagne, the girls on the failed carrot cake. Then we went to bed and rose a few hours later to drive several hours to see the grandparents in OKC. We decided an Easter with family was well worth a short night of sleep and a moderately long car ride - really less than 6 hours. Two sets of cousins - the ones around our youngest's age - came over, and we had an Easter egg hunt in which 10 kids made short work of 250 eggs.  They blew bubbles, colored with chalk, and played ball in the yard, before feasting on the traditional Easter feast - ham, asparagus, salad, potatoes, rolls, etc. No jello salad this year. Lemon bars and carrot cake and candy and ice cream satisfied everyone's sweet tooth. We sat around and talked, did some yard work cutting up limbs that came down in a storm, and bottle fed kittens my sister-in-law had rescued from a litter left in her garden shed.  The kids played and ate candy, and somehow the afternoon passed quickly. We didn't linger long after breakfast the next day, but the visit was long enough to share some hugs with the grandparents and make a memory with the cousins.

It also was long enough to remind my own two kids left at home that they are part of a family bigger than they sometimes realize. They have people who care about them and people they need to care for. A constant goal of parenting while living an itinerant life has been to give my kids a sense of rootedness in their membership in an extended family, a family they may find awkward or annoying, but a family that is there for them in difficulty and in celebration. I'm happy some of those efforts have been fruitful with the older kids who now choose the company of their grandparents and cousins without me forcing it. A real Easter gift.. 

Celebrations

 Happy May!

I was talking to my Italian friend last Saturday, and she mentioned it was Italian Labor Day, which reminded me that it was also the Feast of St Joseph the Worker. We had a delicious homemade pasta dinner with homemade bread crafted by our college daughter, who is now home from Germany. She isn't exactly thrilled to be here instead of in California, where she has friends and could find a job where she could walk to work. So we are invoking St. Joseph to find her a good internship here, so she has a sense of purpose and belonging.  Dear St. Joseph the Worker, please pray for all our job seekers and help them find meaningful labor.

I am sympathetic to her lot. We are reliant on the car here, which I greatly regret, also. I do wonder if she could get a job at the local country club that is within walking distance. I'm sure they need lifeguards, but that's not the kind of position she is hoping for.  

Meanwhile, next weekend our third son will graduate from college, and he, too, has not discovered what he wants to do for a career. He is going to spend the summer at a farm run by Benedictine nuns in the Pacific Northwest - the same ones we honeymooned with twenty-five years ago. They have a farm internship program. He could stay the year, but he is hoping to still get selected for an English language teacher position in Spain. He is calling this his "Walden year" - sort of a graduate gap year. I am both thrilled and terrified with him - I would love to do the same thing, but I also fear he may be less hirable or less in touch with mentors - as I have found myself. I am still trying to decide what to do with myself, and I just reached out to another department chair with my resume - only to find that one of references is retiring in a month. I happy she will have more time to write and explore her interests, but I hope she'll still write me a reference....

We'll celebrate third son next weekend. This past weekend, in addition to celebrating having our oldest daughter home, we also celebrated our youngest daughter's First Communion. It was a beautiful ceremony - the church combines the public and private school kids, so it was a large group, but they were all looking lovely and anticipatory.  I was so glad our daughter had a Dominican sister for her teacher this year  - a young woman with a gentle but firm demeanor and a prayerful spirit. She has a sweet Canadian accent, too.  So I felt the kids had excellent preparation. I was slow to plan a party in hopes that some family might make the trip, but we did gather some neighbors and friends, including some old Navy friends from Guam who now have five little ones. 

The party continued for several hours (although no kids got in the pool because it was a sickly pale green - the effect of a pollen/oak flowers clogging the pump while it was off while we were in Indiana for Easter. After four or five filter washings, it finally is clear again, three weeks later. My husband was relentless.) until finally we had to announce an end because it was about time for us to all load up for prom photos. 

Our senior's big dance was happening that evening, and his group of friends planned to gather at the base of a famous bridge over the Colorado River (the Texas one) before dinner at a friend's house, to which parents were also invited, and then carpool to the dance, before going to an after party at another friend's house, and then finally our son and some boys returned here to sleep, while the girls stayed at the girl house. 

If there is one great thing about this move, it is the wonderful group of friends our son has made. I want to get to know the parents better because I like them and I crave some friendships. For several families, these are their youngest kids heading off to college after parenting several others, and they are planning an empty nest club to get together and visit. I'm not quite there yet, but I'd like to join them anyway for coffee or wine or seltzer or whatever. My Bible Study group is also older moms - several of whom started the study group when their kids were little - and all the talk is of kids graduating and going to college, or graduating college and getting jobs, or getting married. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was a part of the groups talking about potty training and sleeping through the night, but it still feels just as reassuring to have a group of friends to talk about these great milestones - and the small stumbling blocks and successes along the way. 

So April has ended with two big celebrations, and May is underway, the days ticking by too quickly. We have the state track meet tomorrow, then Mother's Day and a soccer game, the last week of school for my community college class (just when I was questioning whether I would return to teaching ESL in the fall, my students gave me sweet Teacher Appreciation gifts and thoughtful notes.) and grading for my online class. I'm looking forward to a little done time come the middle of June. 

For now, here are some pictures of the First Communicant and the Prom Goer. 

Next I want to order some Mother's Day gifts for my own mom and mother-in-law, and hope they won't be too too late.

The celebrant and her cake. 

It's been a while since I decorated a cake and we didn't have a great selection of colors any more. This was a joint effort cake

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Is this cutie a senior? Pre-internet baby photos.

Dance moves at a wedding.

Senior Prom. Ready to make some dance moves

First Dance Freshman Year 

She's wearing the same dress and shoes her sisters wore, and my wedding veil - which her sisters wore also. I'm wearing the same skirt and sweater set and pearls that I've worn for four or five First Communions. 

Portrait with her patron, St. Catherine of Siena. I love these mosaics at our parish.

The moment. No chalice this time.

A robins' egg, by dad thought was candy and immediately tried to eat

Willie Nelson and George Strait in concert. My husband got free tix but I let my daughter go to cheer her up. I'm not sure she appreciated the historical momentousness. d

District track meet - qualified on relay teams, but choked in the open 400. Was in third/fourth, but stopped too soon at a line that was for the hundred hurdles, so she ended up 5th. 

Meanwhile we got to go the Earth, Wind, and Fire concert for free for the grand opening of the new event space at UT, the Moody Center. Great show! 

It's been awhile since we had a date night.

Husband at the opening ceremony with the real Matthew McConaughey 

 

 

 

 

 

Guess who said yes to coaching?

Soccer player amongst the bluebonnets. The wildflowers here are beautiful.

First dance, freshman year

The pool is open and clear!