4th Week of Advent

The 4th advent candle is the angel candle. Angels throughout scripture announce things. And give hope, support, and strength.

But they don't assure that the world at large and our own individual places of life go on unchanged. Angel visits usually mean detours are ahead, major changes are impending, and lives and destinies will soon be impacted. In fact, there's not one place in scripture where they start their words without "Fear not...". Is it their looks?

When angels appear, something of the divine breaks in upon our human history. Something beyond our understanding and definitely out of our control. Something that shows us there's more to life than what meets the eye - another realm beyond - another story larger than the small one we live in and tend to think we write.

What fears prevent or distract me from receiving a message wholeheartedly? My hearing it does not depend on how cute or striking the messenger might be. Do I have faith? Can I trust the God-graced words, seemingly in the dark and I can't see everything around me? even in the light?

"Hey, unto YOU a Savior is born," announced the angel Gladys Herdman. Just writing this makes me smile. Every year since it came out we've read the book The Best Christmas Pageant. It's such a fun and great book for a fresh look at the Christmas story. It was a healing story for me the first year I read it!

"I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all peoples." The Savior, Christ, is God's gift. In giving His Son, He gave Himself. He loved us first before we loved Him.

Instrument of the Devil

I don't want to tell the punch line up front, which I so often do when trying to tell a joke. I'm horrible with jokes. I have about 'one' that I can tell ok, and Monte often makes me, just for fun, making a big deal of it.

Something I heard on the radio this morning reminded me of this story. Both stories, this mornings and the one it reminded me of, were on Paul Harvey's "Rest of the Story". Both are about some history linked with the harmonica.

Did you know that the harmonica was called "the instrument of the devil"? You'd think...Oh, the atmosphere the harmonica was played in?...What it did to the body, like sexual drive temptations?...Too much rhythm?...People who played them were too different?...

I'm sure all those things were thought. But in reality, harmonica's were made of lead. So the people who played them a lot were being poisoned...

The punch line might have been me telling up front, what I also heard on the radio this morning, about another recall of a toy. So much lead poisoning potentials and other chemicals causing lots of recalls.

Peace On Earth?

Has there ever been Peace on Earth? Not since the Garden of Eden and mankind rejected the relationship they could have with God and chose to "do it my way".

So what is peace? What does peace look like? Peace stands at the heart of all the prophets expectations. Their pleas are made as they saw, and still see, people accept poor substitutes.

Do you envision it as lambs in lush grass next to a calm brook in warm weather? Do you think peace means no war? Justice? Of course we want it now!

God doesn't manipulate history from a distance. He entered history birthed as a baby. We'd prefer to focus, in candlelight, on the tender scene of a cradled child in Madonna's arms. Christmas wasn't a one time event. Christmas is about the unfolding of a promise - a promise of peace. God-in-our-midst and the 'Kingdom at Hand' means God is continuing to be a part, through us. His desire is for us to be adopted into his family and activity, and rebirth is not warm and fuzzy and a bowl full of cherries. Advent's message holds both images together.

I did a felted wool picture of my life's journey. I'll post it someday, telling the story. But for now I'll say that a part of the picture is how I imagine peace. I see a huge rock sitting in the middle of a rushing river. The rock is Jesus - solid, unchanging, dependable. I find peace in Jesus, no matter what life throws at me.

Jesus brings peace to my heart and soul. Peace is not dependent on circumstances. Peace is not a what or a where, but in whom.

Winter

Today is (was) the first day of winter. It started snowing when I was down in Denver and I cut short my errands to head up the mountain, choosing the frontage road, instead of the freeway. Too many semi's jack-knife going up before the snowplows are out and spreading sand and whatever chemicals.

So I opted for finishing my errands in Evergreen, closer to home. Dawson called me wondering where I was, and was going to tell me not to go up the freeway. By the time he was heading down, the traffic was crawling and sometimes at a standstill. He's stayed overnight in Denver tonight, and will meet Monte tomorrow morning to follow thru with the ski plans he has with friends.

All this only to say I was thinking of last year at this time...We got hit with 3 feet of snow! Monte was out of town. All of Colorado was shut down. If you really think about that...I listened to the radio...semi's were calling in to local talk radio to say they were at the borders of Colorado full of Christmas mail and packages, and food, and not able to move.

People lost power, some for days, us for a day. With the cookstove, and Dawson home, we could keep warm, cook, and melt snow for necessities...(like even flushing toilets...are you thinking and imagining?). Usually (except the Christmas eve of 1982) we get the large snow dumps in the Spring and those melt right away. This did not melt! And then we got several other large dumps a week apart for a few more times.

Monte did not get to come home till Christmas day, though his plane was scheduled to arrive a few days before. Dawson shoveling, and our neighbor's little skid-loader tractor got us out. Denver had it worse than us since not enough snowplow power to clear side streets. We drove to Trav's in Ft Collins after getting Monte at the airport, and couldn't believe all the mounds of snow. Colorado spent lots of money paying dump-trucks to haul snow away from the Denver area.

Since this was the beginning of winter, it did not melt for months, with lots of strange repercussions ... With snow on so many streets for a long time, the pot-holes and cracks was unbelievable. For me ... I felt claustrophobic. The side walls of our driveway and road out were so high that we could walk no where, and neither could the wildlife.

I just looked out over our meadow this morning and was chuckling over a track made by fox or coyote that from up above was a large heart shape. And there's usually elk and deer tracks. Last winter there were no tracks!

And then the final fun bit from last year...When I finally got out just before Christmas, I went just to the grocery store. The only bag of potatoes left were organic, which is my preference anyway...well...the fire alarm went off in the store! We had to leave our carts and go out to the parking lot. Luckily it was sunny. As I stood there with many, I imagined returning to my cart and finding the potatoes gone! But they weren't. But oh, such an ending to the saga of the storm, the beginning of winter!

AEbleskivers

I don't know how on the computer to make a capital A and E flow together with the right line in the A as the vertical line in the E, but that's how it's written. English spellings are usually just Ebleskiver. 'Aebleskiver' is Danish for 'apple slices', which used to be (or applesauce) put in the middle of these spherical pancake balls.

You need a special pan that has hemispherical indentations in it. It's best with a heavy, like cast iron, pan. Over the years we've tried several kinds and I now just stick with the cast iron one.

How in the world did someone think of this? I read a funny speculation of the Vikings with their many battles having many indents in their shields and they loved pancakes. So without the convenience of frying pans, they greased their shields and poured the batter over them over the fire.

We make these for all holidays and birthdays and Heather requested them for her last morning home. So I made them last week and will do them again for Christmas brunch. Their taste is a cross between a pancake and a doughnut.

I always start preheating the pan while I'm making the batter.
Here's the recipe I've developed -
4 eggs separated
4 tsps sugar
1/4 C oil (I use olive oil or you could use melted butter)
2 C buttermilk (sometimes I just add buttermilk powder to water)
1/2 tsp salt
2 2/3 C flour (I use white whole wheat or pastry flour I grind)
1 tsp soda
2 tsps baking powder

I beat the egg whites first till stiff and then put them in a dish while I mix up the rest in my Bosch bowl and then gently add in the whites.

In the preheated pan, and now set on medium, put oil in each indent about half full. I find the first ones always need more oil, but then can use less as we're making more. Put batter, about topping the indent, in each. You can use a skewer to turn them, but I've gotten used to using two little forks. When you turn them the middle batter, still liquid, spills into the indent to cook for the other side making actual pancake balls. I'm a clean cook, so I always push the stuff that spills out of the indent back into the balls as I'm turning them, so the pan stays pretty clean. It takes awhile to get the hang of this. But they are so good and worth making.

Years ago, growing up in Tucson, my mom made loquat jelly that we'd serve with these. We always serve them with real maple syrup, melted butter, and then some cooked fruit sauce, like berries. Traditionally they're dusted with powdered sugar, but I'm never one to add more sugar when it doesn't seem necessary. Then we always have bacon and/or sausage with them.

We often invite a family for Christmas day brunch. When our kids were young and we'd moved to Evergreen we had a family we developed a regular tradition with - them coming for Ebleskivers and cross-country skiing, then going to their house for supper, ice skate, and watch movies, and sleep over. Though we've not gotten together for years now, I've never forgot little Kim and Kevin calling them "Able skiers".

At Christmas time, I always have fruit soup and rice pudding around that we'll serve with these. I'm heading out today to get the ingredients for making fruit soup and potato sausage.

The dark night of the soul

I love this artist and her rendition of the poem by St John of the Cross.

St John of the Cross

I didn't post about St John of the Cross on his calendar day, which was Dec 14.

I've read his story, it's not lovely, he was a Carmelite and imprisoned a lot, but he wrote "Dark Night of the Soul" which for literacy sake, we need to know about. He was a contemporary and friend of Teresa of Avila, and died in 1591. Many people have put parts of his poem to music and you'd think it was just an ordinary male-female love poem. When in reality it was like so many medieval writers wrote, as their love for God.

"Whoever wishes to come after me must die to self and follow me." In the imprisonment of 'death' (and such a long and horrible imprisonment it was) John came into the light.

Here's some of his long poem, but my favorite music it's put to is by Loreena McKeenitt.

STANZAS OF THE SOUL

1. On a dark night,
Kindled in love with yearnings--oh, happy chance!--
I went forth without being observed,
My house being now at rest.

2. In darkness and secure,
By the secret ladder, disguised--oh, happy chance!--
In darkness and in concealment,
My house being now at rest.

3. In the happy night,
In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught,
Without light or guide, save that which burned in my
heart.

4. This light guided me
More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me--
A place where none appeared.

5. Oh, night that guided me,
Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover,
Lover transformed in the Beloved!

6. Upon my flowery breast,
Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him,
And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

7. The breeze blew from the turret
As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck
And caused all my senses to be suspended.

8. I remained, lost in oblivion;
My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself,
Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

Mary's "Yes"

I was with some friends and we were trying to imagine Mary's visit from the angel. We decided it was during day-to-day, like doings of laundry. The angel came in and she probably, in her excitement, threw up her hands and dropped it all!

What does it mean "favored by God?" Does it mean Mary was perfect? Who else in scripture was favored by God? Abel was, and was killed by Cain. Sarah was favored at 90. Abraham was, and was asked to sacrifice his only son. Joseph was, and was sold into slavery. Moses was, and died, trying to get to the promised land. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba found favor, yet suffered betrayal, deaths, scandals and isolation. Job lost everything. Naomi turned bitter. The Israelites wandered for 40 years.

What would Mary's "yes" mean? What the angel proposed went against the norm of Mary's expectations and dreams of what marriage, pregnancy, and then birth typically looked like. What if your daughter came home with such a story as hers - claiming she was pregnant with the Son of God, would you believe her, laugh - and wasn't that blasphemy?

I had to ask myself, considering that God does not coerce us, and gives us freedom, did Mary have a choice? Could Mary have refused? Would God have just gone to another maiden? "Yes" is a choice.

If Mary knew beforehand of Bethlehem, the stable...and then angelic hosts, shepherds, magi, flight into Egypt, children slaughtered, the visit to the temple ... even her Son's betrayal and death ... would she have said "Yes"?

Can I trust God with my life? enough to say "Yes"? Do I want to be impregnated by God's holy Word? I have said "Yes". Every time I say "Yes" the Holy Spirit impregnates me (overshadows me) and something new comes to birth in me.

"Here I am, thy servant Lord. Let it be with me according to Your word."

Mary's response to it all? A song.

Wedding

Home from Texas and now getting ready for company for supper. The house is a disaster, with getting Heather ready to leave FOREVER, tho they'll come back and get all the stuff she packed. And then I was sewing her outfit up until the night before we flew out.

Bill's chaplain, who had been with him in Iraq, and was his best man, asked me, "how are you feeling?" I told him things hit me moreso afterward.

And that it did and will as time passes. Yesterday I looked thru all the 365 pictures Dawson had downloaded on my computer. Other than when he was playing the piano and being soundman (all the way up in the balcony of this chapel)(Monte and me sang a song and then Jim), Dawson kept snapping pictures from the beginning to the end. Arranging and rearranging them in various folders and albums, I could re-live everything.

In the busy-ness, none of us really slowed down until Bill's pastor from another base, did the service. THEN I started thinking about "this is real", my daughter is really getting married.

I'm glad for the people who came. They were going to elope, but there was probably more realness for them, to have some close family and a few friends and fellow comrades.

I was glad that my sister Kelli came, driving from Tucson, with my mom and Jim. Kelli has done lots of photography at weddings. She captured pictures while Dawson was busy. She's the one who made everyone stay and pose for pictures. I can't wait to see her photos too.

So...our kids marry and our families grow and the dynamics change. I have a daughter-in-love Sarah, who we see with Travis at least once a month, and we IM all the time. And now a new son-in-love, William. So now my daughter's name is Heather Lavendar - how cute!

We're not empty-nesters yet, tho it pretty much feels like it, since social Dawson is gone so much. But it looks like he'll probably be home another year and half, since he's fine with staying at the community college another year! (By the way, he got a 4.0 grade this semester.) It tells me two things: He sees the value in saving money by getting a lot of preliminary classes done in this setting, AND He must feel such freedom at home to come and go, that that urge to leave home for more freedom, does not exist. And what this means for us, is that I'll still need to stock food for him and his friends who still like to hang out here.

Stocking Earrings

I bought instructions for these earrings at the yarn shop where I teach felting classes. So I've been making them for several years now.

At Heather's shower a couple weeks ago (by the way, she's getting married this Tuesday. We fly out early tomorrow morning and I have to finish the buttons and bottom lace of her outfit. Dawson and my sister Kelli will take lots of pictures.) a long time friend of mine was wearing the earrings I made her years ago.

So I'm making more to give away. I'm trying different thread/yarn then I used before. The done earrings are mine I made long ago. Now that I see them, I do like the heel and toe contrast.

The difference now? Look at those needles! They're like 0000 and I'm having to wear glasses now!