“If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough.”
The day is lovely, sunny and fairly warm. I stood outside a long while this morning checking out the lower forty: okay, a bit of an exaggeration there. It was the side yard where the day lilies grow. I noticed their shoots are all above the ground. In the front garden the most beautiful cluster of yellow flowers is blooming. It deserves a picture so I’ll go back out later. All of the crocus are up: purple, yellow, white and a few variegated. I’m thinking they are the best harbingers of spring.
My feeders are empty again, good thing I bought more seed yesterday when I did my errands. Gracie and I did four of them including the dump and Agway, her two favorite spots. I also stopped at Hot Diggity Dog and bought Gracie some pastries for Easter then went next store to Buckies Biscotti and treated myself to lunch and a cupcake. It was altogether a most satisfying day.
We always had Good Friday off from school though the nuns expected us, the older kids, to pick an hour to do vigil between noon and three. The vigil was in the downstairs church, never in the big church upstairs. I remember how dark and quiet the church was. All the statues were covered in purple cloth. The only sounds were the creaking of the pews as people came and went or just tried to make themselves more comfortable on the wooden pews. I remember wearing play clothes to do vigil, even pants. It wasn’t like a Sunday when you had to wear a dress. There was always a nun sitting in the back checking us in and out. We only had to stay an hour, but it seemed far longer just sitting there quietly and supposedly praying. I sneaked in a book a couple of times and got caught once. The nun just held out her hand, and I gave it to her. I must have look too suspiciously pious with my head bent in constant prayer. She gave me back the book when I left.
Some years, when I was teaching, Good Friday was just before April vacation week so I got to leave early, on Thursday night, for Europe. I usually went every April. One year my sister and I went to London. She had never been there, and I had been there several times so I let her pick what she wanted to do, and we did everything on her list and more. I remember waking up on Easter morning and finding the Easter Bunny had left fudge eggs and cards, both compliments of our parents who had sneaked them to each of us to give to the other. That Easter Sunday we went to Windsor Castle, and there were huge crowds wandering around and a band was playing. I remember it was really windy and cold. That’s my strongest memory of that Easter Sunday.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: bird feeders, Buckies, Crocus, day lilies, errands, Good Friday vigil, Hot Diggity Dog, London, lovely day, Lunch, nuns, prayer
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March 29, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Hi Kat,
We always had Good Friday off from school. I wasn’t Catholic so no vigil for me but I probably would have brought a book, too. The Good Friday I remember most was the one where my best friend and I got picked up by the state police for running away from home. We had decided to walk the high tracks just to see where they went and some homeowner along the way reported us. The policeman did not know that we had off from school that day and he wasn’t entirely sure we were telling the truth but he dropped us off near our houses and didn’t push the point. As I recall my teen years, that was probably the ONLY time I wasn’t running away from home but it was the only time I got bagged for it. 🙂
It’s cold and damp up here today. I’m very sore from my adventures in the swamp yesterday and the weather isn’t helping any. I can say that the skunk cabbage crop is abundant and thriving back there. 🙂 It’s probably one of the few signs of spring in these parts.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
March 29, 2013 at 12:15 pm
Hi Caryn,
I got a good laugh from your running away story!
When I was working, we always had Good Friday off too, but one year the school committee decided it was a religious holiday and we shouldn’t have the day, but by contract, teachers could take off religious days. Well, that one Good Friday all of a sudden, the devout came out of the woodwork. So many teachers took the day off we didn’t have any subs and we had to have classes just sitting in the auditorium talking. It was a mess. The school committee changed its mind and the next Good Friday was a day off.
Did you catch the dog? After all the swamp walking I hope you were successful.
We are lucky. It’s still a lovely day!
Have a great day, Caryn!
March 29, 2013 at 1:52 pm
I didn’t catch the dog. He was immune to being lured. I tried Rocky. They played together happily but the terrier would run off as soon as I moved. I tried my turkey meat loaf but he ran away from that as well. How insulting. 🙂 In the end the best I could do was to herd him towards his own yard and hope he would stay there. He was good and muddy by then so I doubt the owners would let him inside. Stupid people who don’t deserve a dog.
The sun is sort of out now so it’s warmer. Much better.
March 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm
Caryn,
I agree. Some people just don’t deserve a dog. Gracie is outside playing with her friend Cody who walked up from his house. It’s a good day for a romp in the sun.
Gracie never comes to me when she escapes!
Hope the day stays sunny!
March 29, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Snow all day long, everything is covered with that White Christmas stuff. No public secular life is visible on this most important Lutheran holiday over here, even the birds are quit. I think this year the Easter Penguin will bring the eggs.
Renaissance music for Good Friday:
Hope you like it.
March 29, 2013 at 2:15 pm
Birgit,
Snow? Snow? There is no snow on Easter! That is just horrible especially on such an important holiday. The world’s weather has gone tipsy!
Easter is one of the Sundays when the world goes to church: the Christmas-Easter Christians.
I like that-the Easter Penguin. I bet it would look cute!
The music is wonderful-thank you!!
March 29, 2013 at 8:19 pm
Since I don’t celebrate Good Friday I have only this one fun holiday adventure. I was hired to fly an Cessna Citation jet airplane from Dallas to Denver Centennial Airport on Good Friday in 1982 and return that evening. I checked the weather in Denver and it was forecast for a slight chance of rain showers and thunderstorms. When I departed the weather was good in Denver. When I reached Amarillo Texas I checked the weather at Denver and it was the same as an hour earlier. When I reached the Kiowa navigation aid, which is about 100 miles from Denver, the air traffic controller asked if I had the latest Centennial weather. Now the airport was reporting 100 ft. Ceilings and one eighth of a mile visibility in blowing snow. The airport was below landing minimums in a blizzard. I asked to divert to Stapleton International Airport, where the weather was a little better, and I was told that they only had one runway open and I would have to hold for three hours in the air. Of course we didn’t have enough fuel so we diverted to Colorado Springs.
Once we arrived in Colorado Springs our passengers decided to rent a car and drive to Denver in the snow storm. We agreed to meet them in Denver later that day. Unfortunately, we were snowed in and couldn’t get into Denver that entire day. We had to stay in a hotel overnight in Colorado Springs and our passengers stayed in a hotel in Denver. None of us had brought a change of cloths or even a coat. The next day we flew to Denver to pick up our passengers when the storm abated some and fly them home to Dallas where it was sunny and 75 degrees.
March 29, 2013 at 9:31 pm
Bob,
I remember when Stapleton was the only airport. It was a bit of a strange ride as to get there you had to go through residential areas. The rental car areas were a long way from the airport itself.When DIA was built, I was amazed at how modern it was with its shuttle trains and new buildings.
At least Colorado is quick at clearing the roads so you could get to Denver the next day. Did you decide to keep an extra change of clothes on board after that? I always keep one in my carry on just in case.
That was quite the temperature change: from snow to 75˚!
March 29, 2013 at 8:45 pm
The last time I was in a church at Easter was in 2001. I was the cantor at this church and it was our first Easter in this new building
http://tinyurl.com/cth9dta
By Christmas I was in my third month of hospitalization with two to go so I missed my first High Holy Day as cantor in ten years.
Not one member cam to visit me in all that time and Monsignor came but once.
I still scratch my head over that.
March 29, 2013 at 9:33 pm
Beto,
The wooden vaulted ceiling is gorgeous in that church.
I too would wonder why no one came. As the cantor, you had to be missed. Maybe some people are hospital phobic. When I had my back surgery, I was there four days and no one came to see me either. I was bummed.
March 29, 2013 at 10:41 pm
Have a gentle Easter Kat.
March 30, 2013 at 10:19 am
Thank you, Beto! That is the nicest of wishes.
March 30, 2013 at 12:44 am
We too had Good Friday, or Long Friday as we call it, off from school and most doesn’t work that day either nor on Monday when it’s a holiday as well. But kids always have a vacation from school either the week before or after easter.
Tomorrow kids will go out dressed as witches and wizards knocking on doors asking for candy. Well they have already started to be honest but the ones I’ve met actually handed out candy 🙂 We only have one kid in the village and he’s so shy that he never would do that 🙂 Just as well since I’ve already eaten my candy 🙂
Yesterday was mostly cloudy and windy and today will start much the same but the sun will manage to shine b etween gaps in the clouds later today ;:-)
Have a great day!
Christer.
March 30, 2013 at 10:22 am
Christer,
We had an April vacation of a week off from school, but it was always around Patriot’s Day in mid-April.
That sounds just like Halloween here though you dress up as anything, not just witches or wizards. The poor kid misses out on a huge tradition. I’d have eaten the candy as well!
The days is chilly but not cold. I’ll need a sweatshirt when I go out.
Have a wonderful evening!