easter happiness

image from: freewebs.com

He is not here: for he is risen, as he said.

Matthew 28:6

He is risen.  He lives!

Happiest of Easters to you.

I had an interesting conversation with a young man,

newly arrived from Ethiopia,

who helped me in the drugstore earlier this weekend.

He commented to his co-worker that he liked how in this country

Easter weekend lined up with the celebrations in his home country.

I was curious and asked where he was from.

He replied, from Ethiopia and I'm still learning English.

Then he wished me a happy Passover.

I wished him a happy Easter.

He then asked, What's the difference?

I replied that the Jewish people celebrate Passover,
and Christians celebrate Easter.

And he asked me why. 

Kind of a weird question given he had just wished me a good Passover,
but I figured he was still learning English and didn't question him further.

I briefly explained the story of Moses in the Old Testament,

who tried to convince Pharoah to free the children of Israel.

Pharoah refused, and as a result God sent curses upon the land.

The last curse was the angel of death passing through the land of Egypt

and taking the first born son in each family.

However, the first born sons of children of Israel were spared.

They heeded Moses, their prohet, who told them

to mark the doors of their homes with a symbol of their faith,

so that the angel of death would know to pass over their homes
and leave the eldest sons alone.

The young man listened intently, smiled, then said,

"I didn't know that before."

I then explained that here we greet

Christians with happy Easter

and Jews with happy Passover.

He asked me which I preferred,

and I said, "Happy Easter."

His smile grew, and he said so do I.

Then he wished me happy Easter.

As I left I heard him remark to his co-worker

that he loved learning new things here every day.

Me too.

As I wrote this experience, it struck me once again

how deeply symbolic the story of Passover is to the Easter story.
Christ, the first born son of God our father,

gaves his life and suffered for our sins. 

God releases us from the captivity of sin and death

through the suffering and death of his eldest son.

Similar to the release of the children of Israel,
we too must heed the prophets, and
mark our lives with a symbol of our faith,
namely a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

Beautiful and moving.

So, whether you celebrate Easter or Passover

may you feel his love and joy this day.

cherry blossoms and a wedding

i love how the setting sun is catching some

of the petals floating through the air

couples everywhere enjoying the blossoms.

gorgeous wedding couple.

the cherry blossoms are just one of my favorite things about living in dc.

happy easter weekend.

photos by me while on my run last night

random photos from my car

today i give you random photos taken while in my car.

i have a sun roof.  yay!

green... finally.

i looked out the window and what did i see...?

gorgeous white tree against the blue, blue sky.

on the street where i live.

if you look really close above the car directly in front of me

there are two small humps which are

the u.s. capitol and library of congress.

this is my view on the drive home from work every day!

I LOVE IT!

p.s. i was only moving while taking photo #4.

all the rest were taken while stopped or parked.

photos by me from my car

rain

image from: commons.wickimedia.org

~ Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; ~

~ without rain, there would be no life. ~

-John Updike

it's been raining here for the past two days.

i'm ready for sun again.

but, when i think about all that rain brings,

then i'm happy for rain too.

happy spring.  stay dry.

winning the battle - week 3

another 3 pounds down. 

i'm a little in shock, but starting to get excited at how much weight i've already lost. 

i feel like i really can do this.  i can feel myself starting to let go of some cravings and habits, and starting to create new ones.  i'm glad i started this when i did, because in the midst of spring's changes and rebirth it feels easier somehow to be making changes right now than it did in january when i first set my goals.

i'm still running and enjoying it.  i feel stronger, greener, more alive.  yay!

image from: commons.wickimedia.org

a thought

image from: wickimedia.org

And we are put on earth a little space

That we may learn to bear the beams of love.

--William Blake

outside/inside spring

this is what the world looks like outside today in my neighborhood.

i love spring!!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

this is what my bathroom now looks like.

i took advantage of the cold day to stay warm

and do some work around my place.

i now have spring in my apartment.  yay!

i put up some vinyal art on my bathroom wall.

you can window shop here and here.

vinyl wall art is a lot of fun.

it lets you personalize a space without ruining the walls.

and when you're ready for a change,

it peels right off after being heated with a blow dryer.

slowly, but surely i'm making this place my own.

photos by me

loverly

It's not often in life, that a person gets a re-do.  Tonight I did.

For some of you who know me, this story might come as a complete surprise.  In highschool, I took an acting class as one of my art requirements.  One of our assignments was to prepare a lip synch routine and present it to the class.  I had recently watched My Fair Lady for the first time, and fallen in love with Eliza Doolittle and her Cockney accent.  So, I prepared my lip synch routine to her opening song, Wouldn't It Be Loverly.  I practiced in my bedroom in front of the mirror perfecting my moves, pulled together a great costume complete with a crushed hat and a basket of flowers.  I felt ready for the assignment.

The day of my performance arrived, and I froze.  I remember that I couldn't put on the costume and pretend to be Eliza Dolittle.  I just couldn't.  I didn't know why, but I was terrified to put myself out there like that.  I couldn't bring myself to do it.  I still had to do the assignment, so I found a less threatening way to complete it.  I borrowed a recording of Debbie Gibson's song Lost in Your Eyes, which was at the top of the charts that year, and I did my lip synch assignment to that song.  I stood there doing the 80s's sway and mouthed the words.  I didn't put myself out there, I just did the assignment. 

I remember looking at my grade, it was a C-, and thinking that it was exactly what I deserved.  I also knew that if I had done the routine I practiced, I would have aced the assignment.  I've been kicking myself ever since.  I think this also the point where I decided I had nothing to lose by putting myself out there as a performer.  I didn't want to have any more regrets.

Tonight, I got a re-do.  My church hosted a night of the arts with a broadway theme.  I was asked to come up with a number of some sort.  I was originally hoping to pull together a duet or a group number, but I wasn't able to due to my schedule.  So, last week I started thinking of ideas that I could do on my own.  One evening I was talking with my sister and asked her what she thought I should sing.  She told me to sing the Loverly song from My Fair Lady.

This evening, I bought some flowers and put them in a basket, got dressed up and actually sang Wouldn't It Be Loverly in front of a live audience.  No lip synching this time around.  All week long I had been telling myself that this was my chance to make up for my failure in highschool, that this was my chance to put myself out there as Eliza Dolittle, and that's exactly what I did.

I forgot myself for the most part.  I remembered all the words, improvised some dance moves and just had fun.  I did forget to acknowledge the applause from the audience at the end, but I felt like I had done okay.  I had a successful re-do.

Like I said in the beginning, it's not often that anyone gets a second chance, but when it happens you have to grab it, hold on to it and put yourself out there.  I am so thankful I did.

Me in my costume, singing away as Eliza.  Not a very Edwardian London costume, but the apron was just so darn cute, I couldn't not wear it.

Enjoy the video.