good bye

Easter Monday we will be "On the Road Again" with Willie Nelson playing on the CD as we pull out of town.   We are leaving in the morning as soon as I clean out the fridge and we take out our personal grooming things to the RV that is parked outside.  I am getting excited about it.  Tomorrow night I hope to be poking sticks in a fire.  It is a soothing thing to do.  I really am a campfire girl and even love the smoke that follows me around the circle.

We had a wonderful Easter Day.  It was uplifting to have forsythia and lilies again on the altar, after the 40 days of Lent where only greenery is used.  

The church was full and we had our precious Father Dan to lead us through the service.  (He only comes to our village a few times a month for Sunday services, so the lay people handle it all the other weeks).  He has 4 parishes he works in and is in charge of Ministry Development, which means he helps train and encourage lay people to do priestly chores.  He plays guitar and taught us lovely Mozambique and South American chants.  The children were given rhythm instruments to keep the beat for us.  Children love to get in on the ACTIONS.  

My friend and former student, Melissa came to pick me up this morning for the walk to church.  She is a social person.  She is a twin, but she alone got all the physical problems and a floating brain growth that is causing her more tremors and instability as she ages.  She is 17 now.  She loves the people at church as they talk kindly to her and treat her as an adult.  She is 17 but looks so tiny next to Father Dan and our door greeter, Ken.  Father Dan's 

homily gave me a whole new slant on the tomb story and on what was going on during the meetings Jesus had later with followers.  I have some deep thinking to do out at the ranch.  But without the distractions of phones and internet I may be able to catch up on my contemplations, reading and books of cross-word puzzles too.  Melissa went up to the rail for a blessing and Dan knelt right down beside her.  After his few sentences with his hand on her head she said (she has a loud voice)   "I feel better already."  So there we were at the communion rail, all smiling and trying not to laugh out loud.  Somehow it was delightful and appropriate on a Hallelujah day.  Then when I got back into my pew she leaned over and said, "You know, Dan is really good at doing blessings."  That made me laugh and cry with delight.  What did she think he had been trained to do at theology school?  She probably doesn't know how much training they have to have.  But he really is good at connecting with children considering he only has two teenage daughters.

Below is one of my Crone friends who rides around town in the better weather on her special bicycle.  She brought me a crochet hook I had dropped on the floor at her house when we had our Friday Crones gathering for yakking, wine and appies.  She has one leg that doesn't work well due to polio, and another that was damaged by an exploding glass bottle.  She is a lovely, cheerful soul especially considering her trials.  We are all so happy to be getting out our clam-digger pants and sandals these days

Good bye and I will write notes in Open Office and then send a long catch-up blog when I get access again to civilization.  On the road again....in spring when the flowers are blooming even in the mountains.  Our road will be gravel not bluebells or daffodils or tulips but lovely too.