Two friends came by to pick up masks. One brought an exotic jar of honey filled with pistachios and hazelnuts. The other brought a pot of pansies. How thoughtful and nice! With B, we sat there on chairs outside and talked for a while. It was chilly but so great, this ordinary thing. Visiting.
Now that I have a schedule for writing, the tension about making masks has virtually disappeared. I’m about halfway through my list.
I miss the boys today. Somewhat acutely. Though not religious, we made a big deal out of Easter. Baskets of chocolate, an elaborate spring dinner, statues of rabbits on windowsills.
Adios and Happy Easter!
Tomorrow I’ve been invited to my first-ever Seder. By Zoom, of course. Here’s an incredible prayer that a Jewish friend sent round.
So many of my memories associated with holidays have to do with food. Easter was always a special day for going to mass bedecked in a new dress and hat, at least until I was fifteen and left the church. Our priest spent a couple of Easters dining with us,enjoying my Mom’s scrumptious garlicky leg of lamb and my Dad’s homemade wine. We had Italian neighbors who would bring over Easter pie, not a sweet pie but a gigantic savory pie filled with pepperoni, salami, mortadella, ricotta cheese, herbs, etc. all tucked into an elaborate shiny 4 inch high pie crust. Asparagus and strawberries always rounded out the meal.
I’ve duplicated that meal many times, not the Easter pie but the lamb for Easter but not today. Neither one of us felt particularly hungry but I did manage to make a good brunch of scrambled eggs with onions, ham and green chiles. Banana nut bread, fresh strawberries and freshly squeezed orange juice completed our meal. A spring bouquet of our home grown lilacs served as our table decoration..
Nary a dyed Easter egg…how well I remember going on Easter egg hunts as a child. Our baskets, decorated with a cloth ruffly and shiny ribbons by my Mom, always had a chocolate bunny. She loved to decorate Easter eggs, sometimes cutting out pieces of lace to glue onto the dyed eggs, sometimes sequins! My Dad excelled at hiding eggs and I am thankful that my girls spent two Easters experiencing what I did as a child before my parents died.
I used to make elaborate Easter eggs with my girls, cutting wings out of colored paper to turn our eggs into butterflies, twirling pipe cleaners for their antennas. I’ve never spent Easter with my grands but then they don’t celebrate this particular holiday. They did call me though today and we spoke of our on-going round robin story challenge and of their project with their Dad, building a wooden home for their guinea pigs.
Life continues, full out rituals somewhat altered but spirit and grace ever present. Today it came in the form of the most heart rendering beautiful music, Andrea Bocelli’s Music for Hope Easter concert. His rendition of Amazing Grace lifted my spirist and I thought of those words, Amazing Grace and it came to me that these days, we have so many examples of Amazing Grace, they are the people we look to as The Helpers…
Your Easter brunch sounds suitably divine! I’ve seen a link for that Amazing Grace rendition will perhaps hunt it down later. I woke feeling very dull indeed today.
Just in from a bicycle ride down to the wetlands in Sydney Park & spotted a big green bottle just like yours in the front window of a second hand shop!
That bottle was a gift from a neighbor when he emptied out his basement. He’s been a liquor salesman for for decades. We got lots of other bottles, too!
Love the bottle with reflections. How surreal to have your first Seder, be via zoom!
And now, it may not happen. Severe winds, downed branches. Part of me thinks I should wait for a time when I can sit at a table with others, anyway.
The morning after Easter and I’m up at 4 a.m. ‘because’ – Easter was a very quiet day, not a soul around but birdsong is terrific now. I spent most of the day in bed, sleeping dreamless and unfettered. At midnight I walkes around several blocks to catch some cool air. Yours is a pretty post despite the lack of a family gathering, decorated eggs and chocolates. The pansies are swell. You’re swell.
I was awake then, too. Wished we could’ve walked the darkened block together, friend! The bad news is I’m tired today. Uninspired. The good news is I snagged a delivery time for my next food order, a slot that was not available at one a.m. and I’m certain wouldn’t have been available at daybreak.
the paschal lamb … and I think of Deb Lacativa’s recent post on Facebook, an illustration of postural drainage for acute respiratory distress … and this poem, This Night, Passover 2020 … it is all of a piece, all of it surreal
may you and yours be well …
And yours…