Easter sunset

It is snowing.

I can't even begin to describe church, except that there was a darling girl (about 1 1/2 years old) in a perfect pouffy Easter dress running around and she was precious.

Ralph, whom I haven't seen in FOREVER, was there, and I drove him home. It was great to see him again. He is one of the few people I have close friends in common with--he's been in email contact with Emily. He knows Lily. Being with him was like going home for the afternoon. In the car we talked about how I like country music and he doesn't. He's one of the original folks at the OD. There aren't so many of us around.

It was wonderful to sing old and new songs, to experience our crazy little community. We are SO awkward sometimes. Stumblingly so. (If I even tried to expand on that, we'd be here ALL NIGHT.)

At lunch, Terry One (not to be confused with Terry Two--usually spelled Terry I and Terry II*) said that non-traditional churches generally have lower attendance on the holidays. I could have hit my forehead with my hand.

THANK YOU! I'm not going crazy, I'm just going to a non-traditional church. He went on to say that folks will go with Grandma to Mass on Easter instead of their non-trad church because Grandma will make them pay for six months if they skip. We had decent attendance, but it totally makes sense about how we still are not quite gelled as a community (and perhaps why my desire to have Easter Dinner, a New Year's week party, etc. etc. have proven futile.) I've never been a part of a non-trad church before (except for the past three years of my life) so of course I expect folks at church to act like folks act at the other TRADITIONAL churches I've attended my entire life (well, except for my backsliden six months in 1995).

It's snowing harder now. There are three robins (well now that I'm writing about them, they've flown off) sitting on the trees outside my window. It makes me think of that nursery rhyme: (which yes, I just Googled, it's not one I can rattle off...)

The north wind doth blow,
And we shall have snow,
And what will poor robin do then,
Poor thing?
He’ll sit in a barn,
And keep himself warm,
And hide his head under his wing,
Poor thing.

It's fluffy snow, I doubt there is any on the ground.

I think there is something (probably dust, etc.) in this back room which makes me sneeze. I had lunch (lovely, thanks Alyssa and family) at the Creasy's and they have a dog (I'm allergic to dogs) and yet I didn't feel all nasaly and uncomfortable like I do sitting here, right now. And I have some energy, I want to just pile everything in boxes and get rid of everything, but of course that's not necessarily the best solution...

I wanted to go back and edit my earlier post, it was so melancholy, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Besides, there are already two comments...

So, off to grub for some food and then maybe make some headway on just clearing some surfaces. Because I bet you it's dust that is the problem.

Oh, and here's a quote that also made me hit my hand on my forehead:

"The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community [even if their intentions are so earnest] but the person who loves those around them will create community."

That's Dietrich Bonhoeffer, courtesy of Shane Claiborne, whose book I'm almost done with (Irresistable Revolution). Tonight, I promise, I'll finish it, and then I'll use my Border's coupon next week to buy it. The library will be glad to have it back, I'm sure. And I'm sure I murdered some sort of sentence structure there, English grammarians please have mercy.

So busted am I. (If you read the post below, you'll see how it is all about Easter's past and MY idea of the way things should be.)

*Terry I is Alyssa's dad. Terry II is a minister of an emergent church in the South Hills. They are friends, so it's kind of fun (and) (hence) (that) they are Terry I and Terry II. When I see them at Tazza, they have eached crossed one river to meet each other.

OH AND THE BEST NEWS OF THE DAY (besides Christ has risen, but you knew that already) is that ABATE IS COMING BACK!!! They'll be at Pittsburgh Mills and if that's what it takes to get me to drive 11 more miles North, well, I just love Abate. (It's a restaurant.) (Thanks Sandy for that juicy--tee hee--piece of news.)

Okay, it's eight, sufficient time for me to fix dinner, since I ate lunch around 2? It's bizarre to be home in the evening instead of at church...