sunday, holy trinity

from "Skyspace", Pomona College, artist James Turrell

When I was little and I heard the phrase Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit or Holy Trinity I was kinda confused. but also intrigued. I like the word "holy" and refuse to allow it's snarky use to adulterate my sense of it. It sounds lit up... whole... glowing w/ goodness (we've all met people like that) and oddly, to me, grounded. When I was little, I didn't have any associations with the dove that symbolized the Holy Ghost or tongues of fire that hovered over the disciples on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit was with Mary and voila, she conceived. Hmm? Today is the feast of the Holy Trinity. That one still eludes me. Father, Son, and Spirit. How about Mother, Daughter and Spirit? I don't have anything against fathers and sons. Perhaps I can see in that trio an association that is so close.. that of parent and child and the love that exists there in that relationship. I am blown away continually by the similarity of parents and their children... fathers and daughters, mothers and sons, in particular blows me away. But, essentially I am amazed by genetics. By how a daughters eyes look EXACTLY like her father's or a son's feet look just like his mother's, only bigger. The way parent and child think in a similar way... all of it!


So, as Jesus incarnates his father... whom we can not see... he reveals to us the nature of God... and the Spirit? that love that informs their activity in the world. Does that make sense? this is where I am stymied. How would you describe the Holy Spirit? and the Holy Trinity?

sweet peas and beans

and so it goes. Dinner with the family. Nothing beats it. Sitting down to a meal lovingly prepared by more than just mom to nourish our bodies and our souls. Tonight I tried cooking fava beans. We received a bag of them in our bi monthly organic produce delivery. I have never seen them or cooked them in my entire life. I popped them out of their pods, boiled them for 5 minutes and then put them in an ice bath. Then I removed the shells for each bean and them sauteed them in olive oil and butter and garlic. They were a beautiful bright green and had a lovely texture and flavor after being cooked in that winning combination of butter and garlic. Robbie helped me pop them out of their shells after they'd been cooked once. We agreed that it'd be more fun to sit out on the back porch with our aprons hanging between our knees with our friends doing likewise and snapping the pods, removing the beans. This vegetable takes some serious prep time. This experience was the antidote though to the sometimes domestic dulling experience of "nothing new under the sun". These were new to us! and we relished our introduction. Michael Pollan would be proud.

May 20, 2010

for me writing is prayer. I am overwhelmed with gratitude now for all the blessings our sons enjoy. Good friends, good teachers, nourishment, that still small voice that I know whispers to them and to whom they listen, for all the people who've cheered them on since they were born and for those who've just discovered them and delighted in them and been touched by them. I am grateful for the fact that I am here to behold them. I am grateful that Pete is their dad. I guess I should be grateful for the challenges they've had and will have. These are life's great teachers. Ugh. In particular, I am grateful at this moment for Robbie's experience at Pomona.. for his water polo experience and his classes and teachers and fellow classmates and for Martha, his best friend and lovey.

feast of the ascension

A prayer a mother could love, for Tommy on his 26th birthday:
from 1 Thessalonians 5:23
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you in every way and preserve your life and your soul and your body without blemish, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your grandfather told me a story today on the occasion of your birthday. He remembered when you visited them in Vandenberg Village and he took you to the fire house. The firemen talked to you about the truck and stuff and you asked questions and they answered. Back and forth and finally they asked how old you were and you said "I'll be three on the 13th of May." They were quite shocked to learn you were only two. I just thought that was normal for little kids to be so verbal and I learned subsequently, not so. Happy Birthday, Thomas Patrick Hayes. You shine like the sun!! and I DO pray for you as St. Paul did for his peops. (Pictured: Uncle Karl, Tommy and Godmother Aunt Peggy)