it is well

i broke 2 things at work today.  and i dropped a side dish of ketchup into a guy’s salad.  and i would like to thank you, man with the ketchup salad, because he was very kind about it.  didn’t complain.  and tipped me better than many a customer who had not the reason of beketchuped caesar man to be less than philanthropic.

kind patrons aside, i think it is safe to say that i am no longer banking on that nomination for "waitress of the year"...

the first breaking incident was fine and hidden in the kitchen.  the other, however, was not so kind.  ‘twas in the restaurant proper during dinner. the glass slipped from my buttery fingers and shattered into the proverbial 1,000 (million) pieces.  it was nice, however, to finally be in a position in a public situation where i was able to clean up my own mess.  unlike when i am a customer and break something and then can’t do a darn thing about it.  one of the bus boys helped me sweep it up and it was actually a fairly pleasant human moment because not one person reacted negatively.  the customers ignored it (amazing what people can do in restaurant situations--i think there are some people that you couldn’t pay to be friendly or smile at their waiter) and my co-workers all sought to console me, pulling out classic lines from forrest gump (shiz happens) and sharing their own shattering glasses and spilling stuff on customers stories.  my co-workers are kind humans looking, like we all are, for love and happiness.  i have hopes for them to find it one day in the only One it is found.  


all-in-all, it was a Monday.  a roller coaster ride of beauty in the Eucharist, the hidden beauty in spilled ketchup and broken dishes coupled with the ugliness of discouragement and temptation to despair of God’s providence.  but where sin and ugliness abound, grace abounds all the more.  and i thank every soul who has prayed for me because i felt the answers to those prayers in the supernatural peace and trust that came from heaven to supply for me what i cannot supply for myself.  Divine Providence did provide, Divine Providence is providing, Divine Providence will provide.  Amen?  AMEN.

now i am going to put this train in reverse and take you on a tour of Saturday and happy Sun Day Fall Day land. 

my favorite roommates

this is just to say i have the best siblings in the world.  they can steal my cold plums any day.  we made a Falls Church night of it, my roomies and i, on the vigil of Resurrection day.  we hit the local brewery and had ourselves a beer-sampling, frickle-eating, banana-gramming hoot-ninying (alright i’m stopping) good ol’ time. 

i was very pro this beer flight situation

crazy glowy haze emanating from the beer

a thumbs up from bubba is high praise indeed

i felt tangibly blessed by the Lord through time spent with my brother and sister.  it made me very glad that even though we have plenty o’ friends in this area, we still were happy to spend a Saturday night in just each other’s company.  it felt like home to me and i love to feel like home.  (sorry you couldn’t be with us, li, but i am so glad we get to see you so often, too).  

we brought the grams

this is a frickle ( a fried pickle ) and it is delicious 

that ain't no peace sign that is a V for victory because bubba won 

love

this past Resurrection day not only lived up to, but perhaps even surpassed, it’s more prosaic name.  i woke up and it was the Form of Sunday.  those blinds i mentioned last post-they were happily filtering the sunshine to give me that smooth transition from sleep to awake.  

good morning , sunshine

but that twinkling little star did not stop there.  he illuminated the golden, scarlet and green hued gems that delicately flutter on the branches of their mother trees, never knowing what fateful wind will cause them to take flight and do their ethereal dance back to the earth from whence they came.  they sometimes take my breath away.  like for real. 

Sean shares my affinity for Narnian culture

he cast steeple shadows upon a church roof that i love and delighted me to no end with tree shadows on a leaf strewn lawn. 

 he even made shadows dance on my hands while i was on the computer doing this and that. 

 he peeked through the trees at dusk and caused a shimmery yellowy gold pastel to paint the glory of the evening sky.  

what can i say.  i told you i would not stop with the sun talk obsession.  but i will move on...for now.  

it was not just a Sun Day.  it was my friend Sarah and my self-proclaimed Fall Day.  we are moving to make it a nationally observed holiday. i’ll keep you posted.  first off, one thing i am really digging about fall is the tights wearing.  and i am not a high heels kind of chick.  ask anyone who knows me.  just ask ‘em.  but for some reason, tights transform high heels for me into something quite appealing.

pumpkin jives with everything

maybe it reminds me of my mom.  the sound of heels click clacking on wooden floors takes me back to redstart (our street in houston) and my mom coming through the house hose and heel clad and looking quite lovely on a Sunday afternoon. just another little taste of home i posit.  

 

what else am i digging about fall and made it’s mark on Fall Day’s celebrating?  what else besides the great pumpkin (as coined by Charlie Brown)? 

we pumpkined the heck out of our first annual Fall Day.  when i walked into the door tight and heel clad, i was ceremoniously handed a cold brew-a cold pumpkin ale to be exact.  and then we pumpkin pied, pumpkin muffined, pumpkin seeded, and had someone in the background pumpkin carvinged.  

and, just to balance out the pumpkining, we caramel appled.  

the brains behind fall day as well as chief executor of all baked goods therein 

view from Moss kitchen where the heart of Fall Day beat

pumpkin your world , you won't regret it

our other fall day conspirators , Eddy and his sister Mary , all looking sporty in their newly tye-dyed tees

hats off to you , great pumpkin 

another candy ( probably second to candy corn ) that exudes fall 

i recommend cinnamon sugaring your pumpkin seeds

the caramel apple dunking 

the delectable layer of nuts plus caramel plus apple equals fall happy

thank you, sarah, for the Fall Day and friendship and being as excited about this beautifully colored, scented, tasting season.  she is from California so this whole actual season change is just as novel for her so we can oooh and ahhhh over it together.  and we do.  

insert ooohhhs and ahhhhs here

now it’s back to the present for this blogging train.  our overactive refrigerator is making it’s constant low rumbling noise that i have stopped noticing save for when it heaves a sigh and gives up for a few minutes and i feel the quietness our place can possess.  so it is with my soul sometimes.  i don’t recognize how loud i am all of the time internally until a moment comes in prayer where my thinking-machine breathes a sigh of relief and just lets me be for a moment or two in the presence of Love. if i got a tattoo (don’t worry, i have no such plans...or do i?...), i think the permanent mark i would want to look at daily and be reminded of is that short and profound Psalm verse: “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

Be still.  like these flowers.

all will be well.  

please pray for my grandma, mimi, she fell hard today and broke her hip and is in the hospital. thank you!


have a leaf kaleidoscopy week! peace of Christ be with you.

all of these photos brought to you by Bubba's camera so thank you very much, Sean!