![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hermionesviolinLast night I went to a Green Alcohol and Green Food party at Cate's new abode -- bus to Lechmere and then walked, though looking at the map the walk from Central Square might be about the same distance as the walk from Lechmere, so I may try that next time.
I mostly just hung around listening to people, which was fine. The conversations were highly geeky at all times, with topics ranging from from alcohol to math.
I think it was Ian-the-bartender who was talking about renaissance cocktails, including the Jack Rose, which apparently a number of local bartenders spent some time going through all variant recipes and figuring out how to make the very best. Apparently Eastern Standard at Kenmore is one of the places one can get a really good Jack Rose around here. It's a $10 cocktail, so possibly that'll be a special occasion kind of excursion.
Over the course of the night I had a Grasshopper, a green Mai Tai, and a martini (because someone had said that on hand that night were two of the best gins for people who don't like gin). I ended up not drinking much of the martini, however, because I was by that point cuddling attached to a Cate. When I was getting ready to leave, I took another sip of it and yeah, it tasted strongly of olives (the sips I'd had when it was first served were fine, though).
Dinner was stuffed crust pizza from Cecilia's, which was tasty.
Company included a vegetarian-from-birth Unitarian who gives things up for Lent (her mother comes from a Lutheran background) and a woman who was talking about Johnny Weir -- which of course reminded me of mosca.
Around midnight, someone with a car who lived in my neck of the woods was heading out, so at that point I left as well, since I did want to sleep in my own bed and didn't really wanna spring for a cab (or walk all that way home).
I didn't even bother setting my alarm for 5am (in case I felt up for going to sunrise service) but just set it for 9am (to get up for regular morning service). I think this was a good choice.
I'm still not really well-focused on, well on anything really. Life does not neatly follow the liturgical calendar. And hey, Eastern Orthodox Easter isn't for about a month, as they schedule theirs near Passover. Which reminds me that l would like to maybe actually attend a Passover seder this year (since I've never been to one).
I'm not sure what I want from anyone, which is frustrating. I may find myself singing the Maundy Thursday: Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.
I wrote the above before going to evening church, and I'm really glad I went. Having had houseguests two weekends in a row and not getting enough sleep, I knew that not traveling out to Norwood for Easter was the right decision (last year I went to sunrise service, CHPC, and then Norwood; this year I did CHPC and CWM) but CWM service was a really good experience. The small round table altar was covered with and surrounded by flowers (lilies, tulips, daffodils, etc.) and there was so much enthusiasm and warmth and joy, that it really helped with feeling the Easter spirit. And it's definitely the closest to a church home that I have. And we ended with an "inclusive" version of "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today" which didn't feel awkward (as those rewrites often do to me) and we sang all six verses and it was so enthusiastic and just good.
In her sermon [blogspot, 7Villages] Tiffany talked about how in the Farewell Discourse (John 13-17) Jesus says over and over: "Know these three things: love, peace, and joy," and that we resist joy for so many reasons, but that God really wants us to have joy.
One of the bits I wrote down was "to live a life of Good Fridays is to deny" -- and I forget exactly what she said, but pulling up the online text: "But to dwell forever in a world of Good Fridays negates God’s proclamation that life and love are always more powerful than the forces of death and destruction."
And of course she quoted from The Color Purple :) "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."
It was a really good sermon for me to hear.
The Meditation was: "You may weep and mourn, but your pain will turn to joy...and no one will take that joy from you." -John 16:20ff
I think my joy sadhana verse is going to be "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV), but that would make a really good joy sadhana verse.
***
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hummingwolf posted an excerpt from the Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom, which I found stunning:
Bonus which made the night: e-mails in which we weren't arguing. It gives me hope that we can do this after all, which I'd been doubting recently. /cryptic
I mostly just hung around listening to people, which was fine. The conversations were highly geeky at all times, with topics ranging from from alcohol to math.
I think it was Ian-the-bartender who was talking about renaissance cocktails, including the Jack Rose, which apparently a number of local bartenders spent some time going through all variant recipes and figuring out how to make the very best. Apparently Eastern Standard at Kenmore is one of the places one can get a really good Jack Rose around here. It's a $10 cocktail, so possibly that'll be a special occasion kind of excursion.
Over the course of the night I had a Grasshopper, a green Mai Tai, and a martini (because someone had said that on hand that night were two of the best gins for people who don't like gin). I ended up not drinking much of the martini, however, because I was by that point cuddling attached to a Cate. When I was getting ready to leave, I took another sip of it and yeah, it tasted strongly of olives (the sips I'd had when it was first served were fine, though).
Dinner was stuffed crust pizza from Cecilia's, which was tasty.
Company included a vegetarian-from-birth Unitarian who gives things up for Lent (her mother comes from a Lutheran background) and a woman who was talking about Johnny Weir -- which of course reminded me of mosca.
Around midnight, someone with a car who lived in my neck of the woods was heading out, so at that point I left as well, since I did want to sleep in my own bed and didn't really wanna spring for a cab (or walk all that way home).
I didn't even bother setting my alarm for 5am (in case I felt up for going to sunrise service) but just set it for 9am (to get up for regular morning service). I think this was a good choice.
There's only this girlThe couple weeks before Palm Sunday, I sang "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today" to myself a lot (I always accidentally mix in "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" -- seriously, I kept inserting things like "veiled in flesh the Godhead see"; I blame the similar tunes). It would be melodramatic to call them my "desert days," but.
waiting for stained-glass sympathy,
pretending the green train windows
will turn to the grass of Central Park,
pretending spring will come
and pare away the time,
wash the distance off her skin like sand.
-from "Easter" by Emily Bennett (posted by
I'm still not really well-focused on, well on anything really. Life does not neatly follow the liturgical calendar. And hey, Eastern Orthodox Easter isn't for about a month, as they schedule theirs near Passover. Which reminds me that l would like to maybe actually attend a Passover seder this year (since I've never been to one).
I'm not sure what I want from anyone, which is frustrating. I may find myself singing the Maundy Thursday: Stay with me, remain here with me, watch and pray, watch and pray.
I wrote the above before going to evening church, and I'm really glad I went. Having had houseguests two weekends in a row and not getting enough sleep, I knew that not traveling out to Norwood for Easter was the right decision (last year I went to sunrise service, CHPC, and then Norwood; this year I did CHPC and CWM) but CWM service was a really good experience. The small round table altar was covered with and surrounded by flowers (lilies, tulips, daffodils, etc.) and there was so much enthusiasm and warmth and joy, that it really helped with feeling the Easter spirit. And it's definitely the closest to a church home that I have. And we ended with an "inclusive" version of "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today" which didn't feel awkward (as those rewrites often do to me) and we sang all six verses and it was so enthusiastic and just good.
In her sermon [blogspot, 7Villages] Tiffany talked about how in the Farewell Discourse (John 13-17) Jesus says over and over: "Know these three things: love, peace, and joy," and that we resist joy for so many reasons, but that God really wants us to have joy.
One of the bits I wrote down was "to live a life of Good Fridays is to deny" -- and I forget exactly what she said, but pulling up the online text: "But to dwell forever in a world of Good Fridays negates God’s proclamation that life and love are always more powerful than the forces of death and destruction."
And of course she quoted from The Color Purple :) "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."
It was a really good sermon for me to hear.
The Meditation was: "You may weep and mourn, but your pain will turn to joy...and no one will take that joy from you." -John 16:20ff
I think my joy sadhana verse is going to be "Test everything. Hold on to the good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV), but that would make a really good joy sadhana verse.
***
hummingwolf posted an excerpt from the Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom, which I found stunning:Hell grasped a corpse, and met God.***
Hell seized earth, and encountered heaven.
Hell took what it saw, and was overcome by what it could not see.
Bonus which made the night: e-mails in which we weren't arguing. It gives me hope that we can do this after all, which I'd been doubting recently. /cryptic
from Norwood Easter
Date: 2008-03-24 01:45 am (UTC)I'm glad you stayed home for Easter -- sounds perfect for you.
Our Easter was the best holiday I've had in ages, I think b/c I wasn't stressing to meet someone else's expectations. Grandma seems not to have had any expectatiosn b/c she kept forgetting it was Easter (she forgot we have candy for Easter!). And Maureen was just glad to be with us. We played 3 games of Upwords after dinner/dessert and it was actually fun. We allowed some words by Grandma that were iffy but it moved the game along.
Remember -- Easter is all about new life. You get a fresh chance, at everything.
Re: from Norwood Easter
Date: 2008-03-24 03:26 pm (UTC)I'm glad you had such a good Easter.
And yeah, Jesus' patience with the disciples is pretty much endless -- which is comforting to the rest of us.
And yes, fresh chances ALL THE TIME. I like that God isn't bound by the liturgical calendar -- that not only is the Easter feast open whether you have fasted or not, but God's abundant grace and love is open ALL THE TIME, regardless of how we fall away.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 01:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 02:23 am (UTC)