Traditions

I had been feeling sorry for myself that my husband wouldn't be home for another Valentines Day this year until I read one of my favorite blogs, Make Me A Mary, this morning. The author's husband killed himself last year leaving her to raise their four children on her own. That certainly put a whole new perspective on my little self-pity party. My husband may not be home with me to celebrate Valentines Day as I'm slowly recuperating from this surgery, but he is alive and well and we will celebrate another day when we can be together again once more.

Then I started looking for ideas to celebrate Lent and Easter here with Michael. Fat Tuesday fast approaches and Ash Wednesday is next week already! My other favorite website, A Holy Experience, had a couple suggestions I really like: a Repentance Box for Lent and planting an Easter Garden. The garden is especially appealing to me this time of year. As much as I love winter and snow, I also love bringing a little greenery and life indoors as a reminder of the coming of spring. This is a beautiful little container garden that I think Michael and I will both enjoy planting together.

I'm also already looking forward to the morning sunrise service at Lake Arthur again this year. We sat under umbrellas last year through an early morning sprinkle, everyone softly chuckling through the readings as two geese curiously and noisly swam closer and closer to our gathering, then boldly joined us on shore, hoping for a little communion bread as we celebrated Christ's resurrection. Best Easter service ever! Second best we hiked to a Tennessee mountaintop at five-thirty in the morning to watch the sun come up over our little town of Oliver Springs...

I'm not sure if I'll plan an Easter basket for Michael or not, we certainly don't need the candy or the calories. He always loves dying eggs every year, though I'm the only one who eats hard boiled eggs and I'm not sure I want all that cholesterol either...Maybe we'll have to come up with some other creative ideas this year instead....