{pretty, happy, funny, real} in January

| a weekly capturing of contentment in everyday life |

Today I'm inserting a little "normal" {p,h,f,r} post before the Series of Fortunate Events finale (the wedding!) I really and truly can not believe that we're in the final days of January. I know everyone says this, but this time I really mean it. How is it possible? We began the month in what we call in these parts "full twirl" - holidays, family & friends and wedding festivities. We're ending the month kind of quietly, which has its own profound beauty. Brian and I are headed to a retreat center with a small group of Christ Church friends intent on learning new ways to come alongside lonely and overwhelmed people. January brought a lot of goodness, with some moments of sharp sorrow interspersed. Through it all, we hope to be grateful.

A few photos to practice contentment this week

| pretty |

Morning light in two locations

I was caught by the January morning light on a table centerpiece in my house, and then in the mostly-empty church sanctuary during Friday morning Epiphany prayer service.  

| happy |

Slow Cooking Saturday

It's been too long since we've made a good, old-fashioned meal for company. When Brian talked with two of his co-workers (whom we'd wanted to have over for the longest time) about what we'd eat, they decided to each bring one part of the meal and we'd prepare it all together.  I guess the idea came when Brian bragged about his (amazing) GF Chicken parm, and they wanted to know how he made it.  So why not cook all together?  Bekah made a hearty, delicious salad.  Sarah & Drew brought the most delectable homemade ice cream I've ever tasted.  (better than non-homemade, too!)  We had to fight with the kids to get our fair share of that yumminess.

Visiting the Newlyweds in Houston

I promise we waited a whole two weeks!  Long enough for them to actually want company, we hope.  We filled the back of our van with remaining wedding gifts, furniture and odds & ends they'd left behind.  I loved seeing their sweet apartment, their wedding gifts in use (note the lovely cobalt blue glass in the foreground above).  They made us coffee in a new coffeemaker, and we sat around and looked at the gorgeous sneak preview pics their wedding photographer posted.  

| funny |

Wedding pics & gifts

Speaking of wedding photos, I tried to snap a pic of us all trying to look at the same exact pictures at the same exact time.  It wasn't an exact science, but it was worth a try! There was one gift left unopened - this dreamy Nespresso machine from my sister-in-law's very generous mother.  Don't you love that reaction?  

Brian's church office

No, he did not order this nameplate for himself. Yes, he has been known to say this about himself on occasion

Making mischief at Aunt T's house

Even though it seems like it's been months since our family visited from the Northeast, I keep stumbling on sweet little reminders that it wasn't actually that long ago.  Take, for example, the original artwork on the pillow case above.  

You've heard of Making A Murderer?  Here's our spin-off: Making A Mischief-Maker.  Judge for yourself and start cranking out the conspiracy theories.  I, for one, am still not sure which sweet angel is responsible.

Whodunnit: Cade or Ellie? from Tamara Hill Murphy on Vimeo.

| real |

Kendra made the Dean's List!

We are | real-ly | proud of her.  Also, I'm learning that mothers never stop wanting to cover their refrigerators with their kids' accomplishments.  Someone once told me that God has a picture of each of us on his refrigerator.  I'm pretty sure that was metaphorical, but I totally understand the parental impulse!

Epiphany dinner with Christ Church staff

Someone recently asked me what these years in Austin have meant (assuming we'll need to move again for my husband to serve as Rector after his ordination).  Austin has been about healing, hope, hardship, growing up to be more like Christ and more like our truest selves.  I said a lot more than that.

This group of people -- the Christ Church pastors, staff and their families --  are forever imprinted on our hearts and intertwined in our way of seeing the world.  Sometimes Brian refers to this staff as "lightning in a bottle". In other words, it's almost impossible to gather in one place or to hold onto for very long. For this brief time in our lives we were part of something really special. I want to celebrate that, even if we won't be together for much longer. The kingdom of Christ has no end, and our hearts will be forever held together with this group of people.

Have YOU captured any contentment this week? 

 I'd love to hear about it!

| Join in at P,H,F,R to see other wonderful people practicing contentment. |

Monday morning thoughts: dancing bear act, crash helmets and a Doxology

a (hopefully undramatized) stream of conscious meditation about Sunday worship:

"A high school stage play is more polished than this service we have been rehearsing since the year one. In two thousand years, we have not worked out the kinks. We positively glorify them. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week, we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week Christ washes the disciples' dirty feet, handles their very toes, and repeats, It is all right -- believe it or not -- to be people. Who can believe it?" 

(Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk)

I first read Annie Dillard's apt description of corporate worship services at a time in my life when I was really, really tired of corporate worship.  I'd been trained to hope for, above all else, a Holy Spirit revival when God's people met on Sundays.  This hope made every other part of church life pale in comparison.  You can imagine the cumulative effect of such hope year after year with only rare sightings of anything other-worldly in our worship services.  

Eventually, I began to wonder things like "Why did Jesus ask us to do this little routine with the bread and wine when we're just waiting for the Pentecost flame moment all the time?"  and "What's the point of the Lord's prayer if we just want the tongues?"  

Probably these questions marked the moment of my conversion to Anglicanism.  I needed to find  an ecclesial container large enough, and sturdy enough to nourish and sustain the healthiest parts of those roots -- all that was good and true and beautiful planted into my childhood church experience that would produce good fruit in the dailiness of following Jesus.

The Anglican liturgy is old enough, and broad enough to articulate all that I strove for in years of restless worship and anxious altar calls.  Then and now, I hold out hope that one of these Sundays all of it would blow into smithereens, that the Holy Spirit would rend the heavens and touch down in our sanctuary.  In the meantime, this preacher's kid has found rest knowing that no matter how convicting the sermon or provoking the altar call, at the end of the service it is Jesus Himself hosting the feast. That every child, woman and man will walk to the front to receive gifts of God for the people of God, while healing pray-ers stand by waiting for the ones who can’t make it that far.

Last evening we had to modify our liturgy at Christ Church because both of our priests were on vacation and we had no one to serve the Sacrament.  This morning it strikes me funny that I didn't think twice about this.  Oh my, the conversations we would have had years ago imagining that there were actually Christians in the world who believed a priest had to preside over the Table.  And not only that, but that there might in fact be some mysterious element to the Lord's Supper that makes it something more than a mere symbol of remembrance, therefore requiring a wholly-dedicated representative of the Christ we can not see, but can only ingest.

I missed it though.  And Brian led in Evening prayer and taught us well out of the Gospel of Mark.  Our worship pastor Bryan led us passionately and thoughtfully into the worship of all the saints.  We sang the words that even now cherubim and seraphim are singing at the Throne: Holy, holy, holy..."  And we sang about the reality of this place where Jesus sits with the Father "Clothed in rainbows, of living color / Flashes of lightning, rolls of thunder / Blessing and honor, strength and / Glory and power be / To You the Only Wise King."

And for just a moment, aided by the skillful musicians and the Holy Spirit, the veil that clouds my eyes from seeing fully this throneroom of Christ was lifted for a tiny glimpse.  It was a transcendent moment and my eyes and ears were more closely attuned to the Real World that is "on earth as it is in heaven."  And we sang and I raised my arms in the woefully inadequate physical response to this knowledge.  And I prayed in the lyrics and I imagined a more beautiful Truth than I'd imagined for at least the last seven days.  And then the song ended.

And it kind of reminded me of the time my friends Scott & Kim LaGraff performed a vocal recital for us in New York.  With all the grandeur of their voices, it was the moment of silence immediately following each song that nearly wrecked me.  That moment when the only response we can muster is silence.  As a group, we were transported and wondering if we'd returned to the place we started from or somewhere new altogether.

Last night, the pause felt the same way.  Might flames of fire actually fall from the sky and transport us into a new dimension of intimacy with Father, Son and Spirit -- and please, God -- with each other in the room -- and Lord, have mercy -- with hurting, desperate neighbors so in need of miraculous healing, let diseases and demons and death be gone.  And the silence is a sort of time outside of time in which we anticipate and imagine and listen for our orders.  And, hearing no new instructions, we take up again the mantle of praise and we sing -- what our Church mothers and fathers taught us -- the truth that we did not make, but instead makes us:  

1. Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
   Praise Him, all creatures here below;
   Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
   Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

And then we walk across the courtyard to a little, plain room where we potluck (emphasis on the "luck" since no one seems to have remembered it's potluck week) together because Christ has, in fact, made us all priests with food and stories to share. 

May we all be sustained and may the lonely, desperate in our city draw near to the Gift who gives us life even while we wait to see Him face to face.

“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.”  (Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk.)

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

a weekly capturing the contentment in everyday life 

| pretty |

Pentecost art commission at Christ Church

These photos don't even begin to do justice to Phaedra Taylor's stunning reflection on Psalm 85 for Pentecost.  If I can find a digital version of her Artist's Statement or some better photos to share I'll post again.  

Follow Phaedra on Instagram for studio photos of this commission and so many other beautiful things. 

(also, as lovely as our rented sanctuary is I can't wait for the day to show you Christ Church's new home!) 

| happy |

CSA

I can't remember if I've mentioned yet on the blog, but this is our first experience with a CSA.  We're splitting a weekly basket with our friends (and neighbors!), the Akels.  Last week I got the fun of pick up.  I couldn't help snapping a shot of this beautiful bounty on the porch at our neighborhood hub.  Isn't God magnificent?  Telecote Farm isn't bad either!

So far the experience is sort of like therapy for our weary selves.  First we gather and divide the bounty. Then -- this week -- Brian, Leo and I got to walk the Akel's basket to their front porch.  I experimented with carrying it on my head and totally get why that has worked in other cultures for millenia. When we got to the Akel's, Mike happened to be  home and we spent a happy 15 minutes discussing his current film project.  We brainstormed a bit, and promised to pray over it in the coming months. Then we spent much of the weekend chopping, pickling and roasting veggies. 

If you know me at all, you'll probably recognize the perfection of all of this.  If there were a vocation called "Walk around carrying beautiful things to share with people and talk about art and creative projects and bless the people making all this stuff", that would totally be my calling in life.

Of course, the eating part was pretty great too.  

| funny |

Rained Out Celebration

Trust me, I am not operating this vehicle at the time of the photo. On Saturday we'd planned a fun outdoor dinner at our personal favorite BBQ in Austin.  The idea is that you don't mind waiting for a table because it's BYOB and there are picnic tables and twinkle lights and sometimes live bands.  A couple of problems:  it was UT graduation weekend and it was pouring down rain in sheets.  Picture several hundred people huddled under collapsing tents.  Fortunately, we have friends who don't mind Plan B's.  And we still managed to have brisket and celebration inside about 2 hours after we took this photo.  Providentially, we left Driftwood less than an hour before the storm became something entirely un-funny.

| real |

  

photo credit

I didn't take this photo because, thankfully, I wasn't close enough to any of the tragic flooding that took place in Austin and several small surrounding towns.  I've been over this bridge on several happy occasions, though, and am heartbroken for the lives and homes lost in the flooding.

We are no strangers to flood.  In 2006 our family was flown by Chinook out of our little town in upstate NY.  Thankfully, we didn't lose any property then, either.  But we are very familiar with living in a neighborhood filled with wrecked, waterlogged, and mud-stinking houses.  It's horrible and sad and exhausting for everyone who does the work of clean up.  

You can donate to flood relief efforts through the Austin Disaster Relief Network here.

| Join in at P,H,F,R to see other wonderful people practicing contentment. |

7 quick takes: weekend of so many good things

or Saturday night/almost Sunday morning

--- 1 ---

One thing Brian and I have learned to love about Austin is the optimistic energy that permeates pretty much the entire city.  People come to Austin not just to be here but to do things.  Fun things, exciting things, Big Things.  Our first year meeting the people of our new church kind of blew our minds.  We began to joke privately that if we met one more person pursuing a Ph.D. or starting a non-profit to save the world or working in some sort of President (as in the U.S.) - appointed position, we were gonna turn around and run back "home". We felt pretty small in the middle of so much achievement. 

After living our entire lives in a rust-belt, depressed city, our little jaded hearts weren't sure they could handle all the Can-Do spirit of this place.  Also, spending time with people who Do Things can become quite exhausting. Left unchecked, Doing becomes frenetic -- rather than intentional -- motion. We began to think maybe the best gift we could offer our new community is a little bit of calm, a listening ear and a good beverage.  

This is all fine and good until weekends like this very one.  Weekends when so many people we love and respect are Doing Good Things and inviting us to join.  How does one decide?  I'm not sure.  

For now, I take my day of rest and blog about them.

--- 2 ---

Allies Against Slavery 

Slave-Free City Summit

I'd originally planned to attend at least part of this event.  I respect deeply the work that John Nehme and others have done to fight slavery in Austin.   

4 ways to stand against sexual violence this April

May God get glory for His name and accomplish His purposes for life through all the hard work that went into this annual event and into the daily work of Allies Against Slavery.

--- 3 ---

 Our Bodies Proclaim the Gospel - Christopher West

Across town in the property our Christ Church has just purchased, a day-long seminar in the Faith & Culture series:

"Christopher West - Best Selling Author, Speaker, Teacher and World-Renowned Expert in John Paul II’s  Theology of the Body - will present a bold, biblical vision of love and sexuality that takes us to the “cor” of what it means to be human.  His global lecturing, best selling books and multiple audio and video programs have also made him the world’s most recognized teacher of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body."

I'd also intended to attend at least part of this event.  Instead, I added two books to my reading pile.  Nothing too serious - ha!

--- 4 ---

Buzz Stops Here, opening reception
Art.Science.Gallery.

One of my favorite artists -- and lovely friends - Phaedra Taylor  created work for this exhibition of encaustic artwork.  I am totally intrigued to learn more about the history and mystery of the humble bee which Phaedra's work explores.  I will get to the exhibition -- just not today.

THE BUZZ STOPS HERE | APRIL 18 – MAY 30, 2015

--- 5 ---

Speaking of Phaedra Taylor:  Christ Church commissioned her to create a triptych for our Pentecost celebration this year.  A group of artists and other helpful collaborators met this weekend to prepare interactive pieces for the commissioned work.  I'd intended to attempt one of the evenings for this work.  (I certainly appreciate the value of behind-the-scenes collaboration for art in church, after all!)

But I did not make it either Friday or Saturday evening to help out.

--- 6 ---

An Acoustic Evening with Jason Harrod

Our favorite troubadour hit Austin on his Texas tour.  This was the things I managed to do this weekend.  It's not every day, of course, that we get to see a friend from "home".  And it was worth it even though we drove through Austin's Friday evening rush hour AND rain which means (and this literal) it took us an hour and a half to get the 20 miles from our appointment to pick up our friend Krista and get to the concert.  Absolutely maddening, I tell you.  Thankfully we were rewarded with beautiful music and conversation with good friends.

Somehow we never thought about taking a photo together.  Here's a couple from a little over a year ago when we hosted Jason for a house show (which we hope to do again as soon as we're able).

[2014]

Our friend Krista joined Jason for 2 shows last year.
In my future life, I'm going to become their manager.  We're gonna be great...

--- 7 ---

This week four of our friends in four different states gave birth to four sweet babies.  On Friday we got to visit baby Henri here in Austin.  It was a quiet affair with his momma and daddy and 1 sister, quietly tucked away in a hospital room.  In fact, Henri slept through the whole thing. He's lucky to be born into a family who live with hope in a resurrected Christ who brings life to the ground of grief.  I wouldn't have traded this event for any other on the calendar. 

Tomorrow we celebrate the baptism of our friends' dear son, Emmett.  We've been deeply honored by the invitation to be his Godparents.  We'll celebrate with our church family and then, later in his yard with doughnuts and tea.  It will be lovely and we'll soak up more sweet time with people we've grown to love. 

And that's all I be able to include in my social calendar this weekend.  Partly because I'm trying to learn how to discipline myself to the time and space I have -- even, and maybe especially, for beauty.  I took a nap, bought special coffee for my daughter and me, read a book, chatted with a niece, nephew, Mom and a couple of sisters, did some laundry.  Not Big Things, but good things, nonetheless.  

Oh, it made me afraid to not experience each one of these good things.  Afraid I would miss out, yes, but to be the most honest, afraid to not be seen.  To not count as one who is also going to Do Things here in Austin.  Well, from my lips to God's ears, may I do all that He has for me to do -- no more and no less.  May this somehow count in his upside-down economy as Enough.  

In the meantime, I will keep looking for the Risen Christ every place I find myself.  I'd love to hear how you are practicing resurrection during Eastertide.  Check out the #practiceresurrection2015 series and send us a photo story or two in these coming weeks, won't you?

--- Other good words online this week ---

• A New Wrinkle in Time by Jennifer Maloney at WSJ:  A never-seen-before passage from an early draft of one of my favorite stories and I think it makes the story even better.

• The Ebola Detectives at BBC News:  This article is a few weeks old, but one I've been hanging on to for the stunning graph marking God's answer to our prayers for the end of the Ebola outbreak in Africa.  

• Practice Resurrection 2015 (and a round up of resources on the same theme) at Lent & Beyond:  What a fun surprise to see the #practiceresurrection2015 and Easter daybook posts featured in this blog post from a resource I follow all throughout the Church year!  "It is truly MUST READING for anyone wanting encouragement to celebrate the full 50 days of the Easter Season."  Probably the best "blurb" my blog ever got!

.....

Hoping for a good and content weekend for us all, friends.

Peace....

*Linking up with other 7 Quick Takers.*