Sunday Salon -- a follow up

Instead of viewing the celestial display of six planets lined up on Feb. 28th, we got to see this beautiful sunset over the Puget Sounds and a view of the Olympic Mountains in the background. Too many clouds to see most of the planets.

Weather: Rain or threatening to rain. We understand this rain will turn to snow in the mountains so we are keeping our fingers crossed because we need the snowpack to keep down summer forest fires. The street trees, flowering plums, are starting to bloom out but the skies have been so grey they don't look very impressive.

Messages of love: Last week I wrote about how it seems like something new is happening, that perhaps love and acceptance is starting to break out amidst all the hate and division in our country. The sermon on Sunday at my church paralleled my same message, so much so I asked my pastor to read my blog. He did and sent me this reply:

Hi Anne,

I took you up on your invitation and enjoyed reading your post.  Matthew 25 was on both our hearts last week!  That was funny to see how our messages intersected the same themes.  As we were preparing for Good Friday service, one author said something along the lines of this:  Jesus revealed the violence of the world by embodying the opposite of it, and in that space between, the possibility for peace to take root exists.  We see this best when we aren't yelling angry slogans, but when we put on frog costumes, sing songs, and serve communion in front of detention facilities.   Also, generally speaking, people are attracted to the joyful crowd rather than the hateful one.  It just takes more work and creativity.  

I'm preaching to the choir, simply to say that I appreciated what you have drawn out of this current moment.  We are not without hopeful examples of love. As a side note, I've been grateful for the secular media in this moment, which keeps finding language to be explicit about how MAGA Christians are their own thing, implying some distance from the person of Jesus.  I praise God that even the non-religious crowd can tell the difference....

Pastor John

This week's news brought new concerns about our government (bombing Iran) but the truth remains the same ... if good people don't speak up, nothing will change.

James Talarico won the Senate primary in Texas on Tuesday. I look forward to hearing more from him this year.

Astronomical moments: Don and I drove west to Chambers Bay on the Puget Sound to view the six planets all lined up on Saturday night last week but the weather didn't cooperate and low clouds on the horizon kept us from being able to view Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune. We did see the other three: Venus (during a brief break in the clouds), Uranus (with binoculars), and Jupiter (which was high in the sky near the moon.) We did take some amazing photos of Chambers Bay and the Olympic Mountain range, along with a beautiful sunset. So the trip was worth the effort. See photos above.

A few nights later we set our alarm for 3:20 AM so we could view the Blood Moon/Lunar Eclipse. This time the clouds were so thick we couldn't even see the moon at all. Oh well, we tried. We had to satisfy ourselves with photos taken by people from other parts of the world.

Books and reading: I am really struggling to gain my usual reading mojo. I am going to blame it on my decision to read That Master and Margarita for the Classics Club this month. The book is satire, but I don't really understand what is being satirized. I keep telling myself that no one is making me read the book but now that I've struggled through as much as I have, I will finish it. (And complain about it, if I want to! 😉)

•  Finished this week:
• The Vigil by George Saunders -- A higher being sits with a dying man confronting both his mortality and her past. Audiobook. 4 stars.
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar -- A love story set against a war which transgresses time. This book blew my mind. Audiobook. 4.25 stars.
• Currently reading:
• Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. A reread/relisten of a favorite with my husband, who is enjoying the book immensely. Audiobook. 78%.
• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Both print and audio. A classic Russian work. Very off-beat. 27%.
• We Need No Wings by Ann Cardinal. E-Book. A book club selection about religious mysticism and Teresa of Avila. 50%. 
• Recently acquired from the library -- Up next:
• The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett. Another book club selection.
• Startlement: Poems by Ada Limon. Will poetry provide the reading fix I need?
• Blogging:
• Sunday Salon -- Love
• Nonfiction review: Replaceable You by Mary Roach
• TTT: Genre Freebie -- Literary Fiction
• Review: A Guardian and a Thief
• Review: The Story of a Name

A little rock and roll: Sometimes singing along to loud music is good therapy.

My cousin's daughter and her rock and roll cover band playing at the Rock the Dock in Tacoma. 

-Anne