Monday, February 14, 2011

Things of Late That Have Made Us Happy

(Photo courtesy of Stock.xchng.)

  • Walking the dog on a half-thawed wetlands spillway -- Ramona delighting in feathery, frosty  patterns, in kicking up crunched, jeweled bits of crystal with every sloshy step, in seeing bubbles under the surface.  
  • Temperatures in the 50s. Climbing into our van, on a bright February Sunday and actually feeling interior heat from the sun. 
  • Watching Downton Abbey (which we recorded) in two sittings with Atticus.
  • Feeling so grateful for our pastor -- for the depth of his spirituality and faith, for his kind, loving leadership. And, yesterday -- for the smile at hearing him talk about our imaginings of heaven, of the ways in which we transfer what we know -- earthly pleasures -- to what we cannot yet know, and hearing him describe the embodiment of God's goodness as a cup of freshly brewed coffee, eternally hot, eternally ready for that next splendid sip. 
  • Watching Inception with Anne and Betsy. Having dreams within dreams and then trying to explain them to each other the next day.
  • An afternoon of lunch, laughter and no interruptions (from the total of our fourteen children) with two other homeschooling moms. The fact that two of the three of us have children old enough to babysit all the others. 
  • Our extremely sweet: 

and patient: 

dog.

  • Twenty-seven years of marriage to my best friend. I'm not sure I can top last year's tribute to Atticus, so you can find it here

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

I've never seen anything like that first photo. Have you read Ramona the passage about bubbles in the ice from Walden? I thought it was mesmerizing.
I've been thinking about picking up Redwall for so long - would you say age 10 is about right?

Karen Edmisten said...

I know -- isn't that photo beautiful? And no, we haven't read the Walden passage you mentioned. I'll have to find it.

Mine were younger when we first picked up Redwall, but I read aloud and edited out anything really violent. I think ten might be a good age to start, but it depends on the child's sensitivity.

Skysaw said...

Karen, while your family and cultural experiences sound wonderful, your parish priest sounds best of all. I think lots of people are finding out what an outstanding priest he is. It would be a treat to still be at your place and learn from him, although I have to say I rather like where I am ;-).

Anonymous said...

I just knew you were dog people.

--Lisa

Karen Edmisten said...

Skysaw, yes, he's a gift that keeps on giving. And, I think you would be happy in your current parish forever, so let's hope you have many more happy days to come there!

Lisa -- yeah. Or we are, at least, Sydney people. We're still cat people, too. But in Sydney we have found a pet in whose fur Ramona can bury her face without fear of having said face bitten off. :) Of course, not all cats are as temperamental as Mr. Putter ....