Happy Easter Sunday! I'm making quiche and cinnamon rolls for our Easter brunch. Can't wait for them to be in my belly! Hope you have a great day :)
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This Lent, I set out to write forty letters/notes/postcards in forty days. I didn't get quite to forty, so I plan on finishing up the last letters this week. I loved this Lent project. I had such a good time writing to people and got a little thrill each time I dropped another letter in the mail. It gave me an excuse to go to Beans and Barley to pick up pretty cards and to go to the post office to pick out the latest-greatest stamps. Unless I get a great idea for next year, I may make this a tradition since it put me in an others-minded state in such a positive, happy way. It made my little heart smile thinking of my friends and family getting little reminders that I was thinking of them.
How did your Lent go? Inspired by the port and brandy we enjoyed at the Inn San Francisco, Paul and I got fancy and bought our own whiskey and port bottles. We bought a cheap port and a medium priced whiskey to keep out for a little evening enjoyment. We picked up the bottles and glasses from Dragonfly, a great vintage-modern-eclectic store on Brady Street in Milwaukee. We've been getting a lot of use out of them, and it's been so fun to share with friends who come over for dinner. I love me some entertaining! Why kinds of special things to like to have out for guests?
This weekend, our community hosted an Oscar Romero service with All People's Church, a Lutheran church close to our neighborhood. It was my first time at All People's, and I was so impressed with the people I met from their church community and with the church itself. This building is a hidden gem - such beautiful architecture, stained glass windows, and artwork! Oscar Romero is one of my social justice heories heroes. I first learned about him in 7th grade thanks to this film Mrs. Guarino showed us (weird - I have totally forgetten how to spell my teacher's name!). Here's a bit about the Salvadoran Archbishop that we shared at the service: In the 1970’s and early 80’s in El Salvador, a violent and oppressive military government kidnapped and executed dissenters. When Oscar Romero became Archbishop of San Salvador on Feb. 22, 1977, he was expected to remain quiet about the situation. Instead, he became an outspoken critic of violence and injustice. Our faith, Romero said, must cause us to speak out; we cannot remain in silence. Today, we are still inspired by the words of San Romero de las Americas and we pray that we might listen to his words carefully and follow his example in challenging injustice in our world, especially in the Latin American region he loved. Romero was killed on March 24, 1980, by a military assassin while he was saying mass. The Salvadoran civil war started after his death until 1981 and ended with peace talks in 1992. Before his death, Romero prophecized that if he were killed, he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. His prophecy proved correct as Romero is remembered for being a hero and martyr both in El Salvador and around the world. We also shared the prayer that is often attributed to Romero, but was actually written by Bishop Ken Untener. The prayer captures the essence of what many social justice advocates strive to remember and work for It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about. We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Since Paul helped organize the event, he asked me to speak about my Jesuit martyr paintings. I was very brave, and said "yes, of course I will!" The Jesuit martyrs knew Romero and came to have a deep respect for him - their legacies and messages are closely tied. It was such an honor to share about my paintings again, and I was excited to find out that All People's will be displaying the framed picture in their sanctuary!
What a great way to spend a Sunday - justice and ecumenism! Here's a link to my friend Laura's blog who currently works at All People's and links to my previous posts on the Jesuit martyrs (parts 1 and 2). I found this adorable book while stalking the Anthropologie book site and requested it from the library to steal all the delicious Miette recipes. A few weeks later we booked our trip to San Francisco, and I had an internal squeal of excitement: I could visit "San Francisco's most charming pastry shop" in person! Which is exactly what we did! I love when life affords you these little special possibilities: the combination of books, an adventure, and desserts! Though I didn't visit any other pastry shops on our trip, I think Miette has a good claim on being the city's most charming pastry shop. I loved the color and ambiance of the shop and also appreciated their use of organic ingredients. I had a hard time deciding on just one treat so I sampled the graham cracker cookies, a really tasty cupcake, and a pack of lemon ginger mints. Since I don't think I'll be able to go back anytime soon, I'm glad I have access to the recipe book to recreate my favorite treats. (If I get really desperate I can also take advantage of their mail order option, but I think making it myself is probably more in my budget.) I plan on trying the graham cracker cookie recipe first! Looks simple, and I already know how tasty they are. I'll let you know if they turn out well!
"In many shamanic societies, if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed, they would ask one of four questions: "When did you stop dancing? When did you stop singing? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? When did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?"
This made me smile today, hope you enjoy it too! I recently busted out this old JVC favorite for pi day. I found the original peanut butter tofu pie recipe in a vegan dessert recipe book I checked out from the Onondaga County library (hint: the key to vegan desserts is to replace all of the dairy with sugar. I'm only slightly kidding). Unfortunately I lost that recipe, so now now I just use this recipe I found on the interwebs. Combine 16 oz soft tofu, 1 cup creamy peanut butter, 3/4 cup white cane sugar, 2 tablespoons (soy, almond, or low-fat) milk, and 2 teaspoons of vanilla with stand up mixer or in blender or food processor. I have found that a stand up mixer is the easiest way to mix this thick pie; a blender will create a smoother texture, but your blender will not be happy with you and may start smoking. Add pie mixture to pie crust; I like using a graham cracker crust. If you want to get really fancy, you can add a little chocolate the way I used to. I melted 1-2 cups chocolate chips in a double boiler on the stove top. Pour melted chocolate over pie crust and refrigerate until hard. Add peanut butter tofu mixture on top after chocolate has hardened. If you're new to tofu, I say be adventurous and give this pie a try! Because tofu doesn't really have any flavor on it's on, it works well in this pie recipe to calm down the richness of the peanut butter-sugar combination. Hope you enjoy! Here is photographic evidence that I made this delicious pie in JVC (summer 2008). What better way to celebrate Father's Day than with a hoosier daddy party complete with outdoor beer pong and flip cup? JVC parties didn't get much better than this (PBR can should be sufficient proof). Pictured above: my roommate Kara, Paul, his roommate Vaness,a and his (my future) roommate Rachel!
My favorite part of spring is that it brings signs of hope when you most need it. Seeing a forecast of negative seven with windchill for today has me doubting the calendar, but I know I'm ready for a break from this cold. Others I talk to from around the country are more than ready too. At the end of all this bleakness, we pay extra close attention to our surroundings, on the look out for any sign of warmth and new life.
In the midst of this never ending winter, I found the first sign of spring during a walk through our neighborhood. Small snowbells peaking up out of the snow covered ground. If I hadn't been on the look out for new growth, I could have easily walked right by them. Over the weekend, we got sad news that two of our good friends will be moving away. One of these friends expressed his concerns about leaving friends but said that he needed to go so that his husband could take a new job opportunity. He explained: "I have to do what's best for my family. I can't stand in his way. He is so excited about this. I'm so proud of him." I felt blown away by his sacrifice and his love. Signs of hope and love in the darkest of times. Without revelation and reframing, life can seem like an endless desert of danger with scratchy sand in your shoes, and yet if we remember or are reminded to pay attention, we find so many sources of hidden water, so many bits and chips and washes of color, in a weed or the gravel or a sunrise. There are so many ways to sweep the sand off our feet. So we say, "Oh my God. Thanks." Help, Thanks, Wow, the most recent book from spirituality writer Anne Lammott, is filled with these small tidbits of wisdom. The book is short and sweet and hit me with its simple and profound approach to prayer. Lamott, a recovering alcoholic with crazy dreads, brings her unique experience to her writing - she has her eyes open to the good and the bad and embraces it all in this book. She writes about a day trip with two friends, one of whom is suffering from ALS and can no longer speak. She is saddened by the decline of her friend's health, yet their time together makes Lamott reflect "I was so glad and so grateful to be there with them that day -- euphoric." This book is a great guide to communicating your needs, gratitude, and awe to God - however you define or experience him or her. Lamott is great about welcoming all different expressions and interpretations of God. Loved her and love her latest book. We get to keep starting over. Lives change, somethinmes quickly, but usually slowly.
If we stay where we are, where we're stuck, where we're comfortable and safe, we die there. We become like mushrooms, living in the dark, with poop up to our chins. If you want to know only what you already know, you're dying. You're saying: Leave me alone; I don't mind this little rathole. It's warm and dry. Really, it's fine. When nothing new can get in, that's death. When oxygen can't find a way in, you die. But new is scary, and new can be disappointing, and confusing -- we had all this figure out, and now we don't. New is life. Here are a few things that are making me smile lately: beautiful daffodils that remind me of old friends... a Snoopy bank found at my favorite Milwaukee vintage store... and Paul's new pair of amazingly awesome party pants. Also this French Minnie Mouse video called Le Croissant de Triomphe. I think I'll have to reenact this when we go to Paris in a few months!
What has you smiling today? |