...and so the story begins, again, for the 2000th or more time...

Palm Sunday, or as some call it, Passion Sunday.

We celebrate in the evening at the Open Door (for now, at least, though Easter is always celebrated in the morning), so I haven't been to church yet, though I have a few stops to make today:

• To the Union Project, where John will help me finish my Station: more on the miracle of that, coming later this week.
• To Bellefield for a women's breakfast, the community of women that have known me (some of them) since I was 19 and a sophomore in college. (I'm 35 now, which seems very bizarre.)
  
• To clean the apartment in preparation of the parental visit (it was walk through-able after Sally's visit, but the Station making rendered it clogged once more.)
• To greet the parents and have a meal and
  
• Off to church to celebrate with palm fronds.

bobbie (who has come back, woo hoo!) posted this morning on a post (do you see where this is going, a significant link??) from Don't Eat Alone, which sounds like what I'm working on for Easter.

So here's a taste (get it, a taste??) from Don't Eat Alone:

The first time around, I’m sure there was a much smaller gathering of the faithful at Golgotha than on what we have come to call Palm Sunday. Even the first Easter was not so well attended. I wonder how many years on it was before churches began putting out extra seating for the “Easter crowd.” I don’t know of any minister who doesn’t wonder what could be done to get more of those who come primarily on Christmas and Easter to participate more regularly and meaningfully in the congregation. The reasons for why people don’t find a more significant connection are as varied as the number of them who come: grief, pain, indifference, priorities, hurt feelings, time, to name a few. But on Easter, and maybe even Palm Sunday, they’re in the room.

Let’s start there. Don’t worry about the timing. Feed them.

Go read the rest...it will rock your socks, even if you're still in bare feet.

What hit me (except for the whole post, which almost knocked me off my chair) in this passage was that I'm agonizing over the Easter Feast. Last week at the OD, BJ asked who would be around as they were thinking to have a meal. About 30 folks raised their hands, and on about Tuesday, I shot BJ an email. "Put me on the list to help with that." Which is when BJ told me the OD was not going to have a meal. Well, shoot, I have made a point to NOT go home to see the Louise-in-Virginia family for Easter b/c it's the most important holy day for me, and I wanna be with my OD family, so there's gonna be food. So I shot off an announcement for the OD emails and I'll stand up (in front of my parents and the OD congregation) and say, "We're going to eat on Easter, please join us." (Not knowing yet who "we" are, although I did get two emails.)

Because I worry.

I worry about how many. Let's count noses and nickels.

Let's make sure there's a big to do, dag-gone-it!

Which is SO not the point, anyways.

A community can be two or more "gathered in My name."

So happy Palm Sunday. I'll be posting Lenten stuff all week, sharing about the journey of the Station I made for the OD, which will debut this afternoon at the Union Project, from 4-6. It will be part of the Unblurred First Fridays on Good Friday.

Thanks for being a part of my community. Really. I couldn't have written this without you.

In which Sarah Louise agonizes over Station #5...

You can be radiantly certain of this: Difficult circumstances are opportunities for you to intentionally focus your faith in God and to see what he will do to give you hope and healing. --Jon Walker, from today's Purpose Driven Devotional.

This morning I awoke to the sound of thunder. The sunrise was orange on the East sky, but it was unmistakably thunder. So I came over to the computer and putzed and read some blogs and email. (Thank you, Nutmeg!!) Then it rained, a gentle rain. Then it stopped, I became angry with my computer (see previous post) and went for a short walk. By short, I walked down the block and up again. But exercise is cumulative, and I have so much to do that I daren't not walk, or indulge in a longer one. I'm learning to not be an all-or-nothing kind of gal! I said, I'm learning. BJ's sermon Sunday was about Paul's letter to the Phillipians, where he says, "not that I have it all together, but I press forward..."

It's gently raining again.

I've successfully done two stations before. (Can't find a link to our past year's--memo to me to talk to John about that...) Last year's station (#6, Jesus talks to the women of Jerusalem) was very well received, and so I think I'm thinking I have to wow them, live up to the reputation of last year's. Um. The station is supposed to be a part of worship, reflection, not my desire to be know as a craftsperson. (Hits hand upon forehead!!)

This is from my email to Kiki last night:

So far for the station for Lent for my church: Station#5: Simon of Cyrene carries the cross for Jesus. My thoughts, based on my research: It was a "hey you, there, carry this for him" b/c Jesus was so exhausted and not moving fast enough but they didn't want him to die on the road to the cross...

Cyrene (located in present day Lybia but was at the time of Christ in the Roman empire.) Before that, when it was Greek, it was known as the birthplace of Hedonism back in the 3-4th centuries BCE. Opposite of pleasure: being forced to carry someone elses cross... Cyrene had a large Jewish population, so Simon was most likely Jewish and there (Jerusalem) for the Passover. I had a chair that I made into half a cross (by taking one of the legs off) and on the nails, I put red paper to signify blood. I have soap bubbles (that you would blow?) to signify pleasure??

See, this is where I think, it's time to wrap it up for the night. Make some popcorn, finish reading In Her Shoes (interesting conversation with my chiropractor this morning--he said I saw, no, I had to see the movie that book was based on. I didn't think it was that good. Which, compared to the book, it wasn't. But if you look at both, the movie and the book educate each other. The movie is harsher. (The best friend is mean, the grandmother is mean). In the book, the best friend and the grandmother are both much nicer. Anyways, I think there is black pepper in this tuna. I must go make some popcorn with sugar, salt, and extra virgin olive oil.

Hugs, SL

Oh, and I have to have this thing finished by Friday morning before I go off to work. Too bad I have to work, too, and clean the apt in prep for the 'rents...ACK!

Plus, I had tons of compliments on last year's so I feel like I have to top myself which is NOT the point, the point is to give folks a thought about a moment on Christ's walk to the cross. It's NOT ABOUT MY ARTISTIC SENSE or Not.

Popcorn....

Some other thoughts: you know that Footprints poem? The one where the man dreams there is only one set of footprints and God says, "It was then that I carried you"? Well, here's a link. (Click on poem--and if your speakers are on, you'll get the sound of waves on the beach.)

Anyways, the whole thing about Jesus being fully human--um, this was the one time that someone was doing the carrying for him--there were two sets of footprints on the way to the cross, not one. (Well, except in John's Gospel, but he was a rebel...)

I'll post the pics of what I have so far, and then off to WBS...pray for me!! Last week I did okay...but I am so intimidated by some of those women!! (How did they get to be so successful at such a young age??)