Monday, February 15, 2016

Three Beautiful Things 02/14/16: The Great Litany, Human Spirit, Inside Jokes with Olivia and David

1. I decided as Lent approached, that I would worship at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in College during Lent, and, probably, beyond. I was very happy with this decision today -- well, I've never been unhappy at St. Andrew's. The liturgy was solemn. We chanted the Great Litany to begin the service. This might be a First Sunday of Lent tradition -- I'm not sure -- but, I was thinking how much I'd welcome chanting the Great Litany every Sunday in Lent.

2. After worship, I buzzed north to the Hollywood District of College Park to MOM's Organic Grocery to pick up a few things. At church, there'd been a spiritual conviviality among the people there and at MOM's the atmosphere was the same -- good people, good spirits, friendly, lots of smiles, and people who knew each other having enjoyable conversations together. About forty years ago at Whitworth, a group of us tried to get a discussion group going that we called "Holy Spirit, Human Spirit" to discuss spiritual experience in its many manifestations inside and outside the Christian experience. Today, I enjoyed this spiritual morning, both inside and outside MOM's Organic Grocery and St. Andrew's Church and it kept my spirits up for the rest of the day.

3. Actually, the rest of day fed my spirit, fed my soul. The Deke and I went over to the Diazes to visit and have some dinner. David and Olivia were making something called slime when we arrived and, although the slime didn't quite turn out, they had a lot of fun and, as I watched them and talked with them, they said all kinds of funny things to me, a bunch of inside jokes about cooked carrots and butter and me being too scared by slime and spiders to sleep at night and other stuff, and it was really fun having these jokes between us and that David and Olivia look forward to joking around with me. One day, I hope Ana will join in -- I think she's getting ready -- she's making all kinds of noises that make me think that she's trying to talk as she responds more and more to the world around her.

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