corned beef & marriage

I went to the funeral of a wonderful man this week. I was so sad to hear he had passed away even though I know he is with God.  But still sad because I never told him what a wonderful person he was to me or truth be told, visit him as I had promised.  

Fr. Fry was the host of Rebs & mine first date.  The first time he & I hung out was St. Patrick's day. Fr. Fry had invited Rebs over for corned beef & cabbage. Rebs invited me. The whole time Fr. Fry told us stories & told me what a great guy Rebs was (which I already suspected). There is a funny second part to the story of our first date but this isn't that story.

At the funeral many stories were told about what a wonderful person Fr. Fry was including how he matched up quite a few other couples & cooked corned beef & cabbage for many friends. I feel honored to be one of those stories.  Fr. Fry always made me feel great just be being around him. He was a blessing to all of us & I hope to be like that someday.

Thank you Fr. Fry, I hope you're still having a good time.

Yosemite

is stunning! Here are some pictures:

The mythic Half-Dome. I say mythic because the one other time I was in Yosemite it was so rainy & foggy I couldn't even see it. Clearly, not a problem this time.  Now I want to climb it! Maybe this summer.

Lower Yosemite Falls. You can just keep climbing closer & closer so we did... and got wet. But the fall was so powerful.  I kept thinking about the waterfall we swam under in Thailand which was much smaller but still instantly drove me down to the bottom of the river. This one would have been like being hit by a cartoon piano as you walk down the street. 

Only, you know, wetter.

Rebs gets excited about snow.

Me? I've had enough snow in my life. But I like hot cocoa.

Even our shadows are in love.

beauty

Once, in awhile, one of the teens in the ministry bowls me over with their insight & wisdom. 

Once, one of them said, "You know you've found beauty when you can see it in something ugly."

To me this is TRUTH & it is profound. I don't know if everyone would consider it so but it twang a chord with me because it articulated something that I have experienced & believed since working at the crisis center as a JV.  

I feel like I see beauty the most in suffering. I think hope is the most beautiful thing. I think that people are more able to experience & express love in situations of suffering. I think when horrible things happen we realize how fragile we all are & we our connections with each other more deeply.*

I think that's when we are most able to bring God's kingdom to earth.

Which, to me, means love.

I learned, when walking into crisis situations when I felt like I had nothing to offer someone who had just suffered a horrible assault, all I really had to do was to be present, to enter into the suffering with the other person & allow them to just BE, however they needed to be. That was where healing happened. 

Later, perhaps, they would want answers to questions, or a sounding board, or a hand to squeeze. But what was most important was to offer an open heart.

And when you are able to open your heart to other's suffering what you are left with is an open heart. A heart that is more open to experience the world, all of it: the joy, beauty, pain, challenges, everything.

Since my time at the crisis center my open heart has not shut & now I am much more open. Much more likely to cry at, well, ANYTHING, actually.  I'm more likely to see the beauty in the ugly & suffering.  

Sometimes it gets a bit soggy but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

And that is why I love FREEEEE-DAHHHHH (Frida Kahlo, for those who haven't been paying attention.)   Because she painted all the pain & suffering in her life & it is beautiful.  And she lived this bright, amazing life. So if you get a chance go see the exhibit.  I'll be going again.

* Of course, this does not make me glad that there is 

suffering in the world. I hate it & would eliminate all 

suffering if I could.

but on the bright side

SYNCHRONICITY!!!

Frida Kahlo's work is on display at the San Jose Museum of Art!!! Oh, wait as I was getting the link I realized that they don't actually have much of her work rather it is photographs of her. But that works too because I just watched the movie & read one of her biographies (including footnotes, I'm a dork.) & in general have been obsessed with Frida lately. YAY!!! I CANNOT WAIT to go check this out!

I do this. I get a bit crazy when I see a movie or read a book I like & them I want to find out EVERYTHING I can about that person (it's usually a person). Past bio-plunges have included: Truman Capote, Queen Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn, Evita, the Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Drew, Van Gough... & that's all that I can list off the top of my head.  

a gifty to my readers, do I have any readers???

when you are feeling down about:

the world

the environment

the Man

the economy

or your hair (no? just me?)

watch this & LOVE IT!