Unexpected Moments of Grace

Emerson v. Channing

Rev. Daniel Harper shows us that even attack ads can be fun.

Ice Cream and Loving Kindness

When I got back from church, famished, my brother handed me something.  He had bought me an It's It!  A San Francisco tradition and my favorite ice cream sandwich in the world.  I scarfed it down, savoring the cinnamony cookie goodness.  We then went to lunch.  (Yes, I had desert first.)

After lunch, we went to the Richmond district apartment building that my parents own.  Something was wrong with the clothes washer and my dad wanted to see if he could fix it.  While he fiddled with machinery, there was nothing for my brother and I to do, so we went over to look at the Golden Gate Bridge.  There's a beautiful view of it not far from the building.  The sky was blue.  The trees a dark green.  The bridge was red.  The wave caps below were white.  Picture perfect.

Came back to find Dad still fiddling.  As I sat in the afternoon warmth, drowsy, I listened to a pigeon coo.  And then, from a nearby building, a woman's voice sang Amazing Grace in a language that I did not recognize.

My dad finally gave up and we called the repairman.  Coming back from the outer Richmond towards home, still in the bright, warm sunshine, I was struck with a winsome desire.  I asked D to stop by PollyAnna's Ice Cream Parlor.  PollyAnna's specializes in Asian and other unusual flavors. Got green tea ice cream for both Mom and Dad, Kaluha for D, and for myself.... licorice.  It came in a dark purpley-grey color.  D remarked it's the kind of color that parents usually discourage their kids from eating.  It was delicious.  (Yes, I had ice cream twice today.)

When I was growing up, Mr. Wally used to keep his ice cream shop open on Halloween night, where he handed out free scoops of either licorice or pumpkin ice cream.  To this day, I associate both flavors with Wally and with loving kindness.  I ate the dark purpley-grey licorice ice cream and thought of Wally.  And afterwards, my mouth was ringed in black so that I looked like the Joker.



Beware the Believers

 Also from Making Chutney:

A vid starring one of my favorite ideologues

Blessing of the Priuses

This arrived in my email inbox today:

Blessing of the Priuses to be held at cathedral

(April 1, 2008) - As part of the diocesan mission to protect the environment and combat global warming, Bishops Shaw, Cederholm and Harris will be on hand to celebrate a Blessing of the Priuses in front of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (138 Tremont Street in Boston) on Saturday, April 5. Prius owners in the Boston area are invited to drive by so their environmentally sensitive vehicles can be blessed.

"We think this event will bring greater awareness of the dangers of global warming and the responsibility of each and every one of us to fight it," Cederholm said.

The blessings celebration will be followed by the Running of the Priuses, where SuV drivers  will be encouraged to run on foot in front of the herd of just-blessed vehicles.

Cheesus

Holey Cheesus!

Got this from Making Chutney.

It's a Cheetos Jesus! (Click on the pic or on this link for the vid.)

My love for American Cheese meets my love for religious kitsch in a perfect orange puff of corny goodness.

What if God...

had a MySpace account?

Too funy. :p I think God would say He's lmao.

Especially liked Satan repeatedly requesting God as a friend. There's a bit of theology in this silliness!

--
P.S. So God uses a mac but with Windows? That's just wrong.

Exfoliation

I'm not a gardener.  But I aspire to be one.

Last Fall, under the rationalization that it would protect the plants underneath from the winter snow, I didn't rake up the dead leaves that fell on the flowerbeds, only the grass and sidewalk.  

A few unexpected flowers have popped up here and there in the Spring warmth, but for the most part my backyard still looks pretty barren.  This weekend it suddenly occurred to me that all that dark debris still sitting there might actually be preventing spring shoots from making it up to the surface.  So the first chance I got, which was this afternoon, I raked up the leaves from last Fall.

Lo and behold, tender pink peony shoots, so delicate looking.  I thought for sure they'd died of thirst last summer.

Elsewhere, more shoots.  These green.  I have no idea what they are but am eager to find out.

After breaking a leaf and sniffing, I discover that the tiny leaves where the peppermint used to be aren't weeds after all.

Even some of the Greek Oregano and French tarragon seem to have survived - by a sprig - both the winter and the even more brutal workmen.

And my chrysanthemums from too late last fall... some of them don't seem to have made it, but a few have green leaves popping up at their bases.

Amazing what a good exfoliation can uncover.

Tiger Lilies

The tiger lilies - my flower - that I planted last Fall were poking their tender heads through the top soil this morning.  I had worried about them, as all around spring flowers were springing to life.  Maybe they had not made it through the winter.  But there they were this morning, slow perhaps in waking up, and timid, but making their own way into this world nonetheless.  Welcome.

The Heart of a Lion

Family Portrait

Methinks the term lion-heart normally refers to someone who is brave in battle. In rememberance of the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I offer an alternative meaning. A friend, Michael, forwarded this to me: The two guys reared lion from a baby in England but the authorities would not allow them to keep it once it reached maturity. They were forced to give it up - took it back to Africa, and placed it in a wildlife sanctuary. A year later they went to see the lion, but were told it would not remember them.


Female Lion Remembers Old Friends - Watch more free videos The experts obviously didn't know what they were talking about. Btw, Happy Vernal Equinox everyone! What do they say about March? In like a lion and out like a lamb?

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