Baby Oak Leaves…

In a few days, the little oak leaves on the trees in my yard will be fully “grown”.

Mother’s day in Spring…no better time to celebrate mothers and things that remind us of them like baby leaves on giant old Oak trees…

Mothers…giving…always there…servants…

Peter’s mother-in-law…Jesus cured her…immediately she waited on HIM.

With mothers, it’s always about others.

Thin veils divide the place where loved ones hide…the whole world is a stage…

Dinner at my home for my family on Mother’s Day. I am blest with having a beautiful 93 2/3 year old mother-in-law sitting at the head of our table.

After dinner and as a treat to all of her children, grandchildren and Great grandchildren, Grama Grama sang Elvis Presley’s ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT…(No such thing as a free lunch!)
Yes, our stage is missing a few major characters, my mother and father, my grandparents…my father-in-law…

Earlier in the day while I was preparing the potatoes, Grama Grama recited William Wordsworth’s DAFFODIL poem for my son Jimmy…Grama Grama memorized this verse in the fifth grade! Today daffodils in full bloom were her inspiration…her Great grandchildren were her inspiration I am sure, too…

AND THEN MY HEART WITH PLEASURE FILLS,
AND DANCES WITH THE DAFFODILS…

My heart with pleasure filled as Grama Grama smiled at all her blooming Daffodils…

Baby leaves will always remind me of Springtime and our Mothers in whose hearts love songs will always play and where daffodils will bloom forever.

Ascension Thursday…NOT EVEN STANDING ROOM

thoughts on a beautiful feastday…

“Jesus” the concert!
How much would tickets cost?
Blow out crowd?
Sad.
so many empty pews…
Not dwelling on who wasn’t there.
A paradox.
Must see through His eyes of LOVE.
Jesus.
“I’ll be back.”
YOU did not leave me orphaned.
Two men in white garments.
EUCHARIST…a treasure not made of gold.
A gift given.
HE is here even when I am not.
And even when I am not here, I am with HIM here.
Mystery.
Faith.
Gratitude.
Humbled.
Joy-filled.
Empty shempty…He is with us all!
not even standing room…
LOVE.
What’s love got to do with it?
Everything.

*

A Little Clothesline

This little token of rememberance I put together yesterday was purely inspired by Blessed Mother Mary and the little patch of “forget-me-nots” blossoming right on time for Mother’s Day…

Gracing the worn statue of Blessed Mother Mary are these delicate blue flowers and their neighbors Signora Oregano, Mr. Chives and a few obnoxious squatters I just call, the Weeds…

While plucking a few “friends” from Mary’s garden, pleasant memories passed though my mind. I recalled how many people had statues of Mary or St. Francis in their gardens…how many springtime flowers brightened up my walk to school…how many clotheslines I’d see in my neighborhood full of fresh sheets, brightly colored polo shirts, stiff dark blue denim jeans, white cotton underwear all drying in the breeze and sunshine…mothers and Grandmothers tending that chore…and more likely than not, with prayers and wishes also attached to each garment hung.

Good memories. Good days.

In retrospect, they were very holy, very simple days.

So, this clothesline full of names of beautiful women from my past came to be this gorgeous day in May! White paper dresses with a name on each one are now gracing me with their presence through the presence of simple yet sacred things. My statue of Mother Mary surrounded by tiny blue flowers, herbs, weeds and a sunny day with a gentle spring breeze are all whispering very dear and familiar names to me…prayers are sent their way…smiles from Heaven being sent down to me and you…

As I catch the white paper robes dancing on my “Mother’s Day Clothesline” these next few days, I will be wishing all of us a wonderful Mother’s Day! And as sure as there is a Heaven above, the sun will be shining and there will be a gentle breeze…if not in our backyards where clotheslines and mothers once stood, at least in our hearts where they will always be remembered.

Statues of Mary…clotheslines…sunshine…things that remind me of our Mothers. Tiny blue flowers…gentle breezes…things that remind me to “forget-them-not”.

A reminder from Forget-me-Knots

May 6…

Forget-me Knots…

Sunny…beautiful May day…tiny flowers whispering volumes…blue so pretty…reminding me of Camelot…IF EVER I WOULD LEAVE YOU…King Arthur…Lady Guenevere…Lancelot…LOVE…chivalry…Daddy…

Daddy’s anniversary…our King Arthur so fair and wise…he “knighted” us before his last battle…members of the Round Table…left in charge to tell another generation of the noble ideals of LIFE…

FAITH. LOVE. FAMILY. FRIENDS.

Thank you my little Forget-me-knots…beautiful reminder of a time and place…WHERE ONCE IT NEVER RAINED TILL AFTER SUNDOWN, BY 8am THE MORNING FOG HAD FLOWN, DON’T LET IT BE FORGOT, THAT ONCE THERE WAS A SPOT, FOR ONE BRIEF SHINING MOMENT THAT WAS KNOWN AS CAMELOT…

That was known as Childhood with the King and Queen of our Teppert Camelot.

The Rosary and Mama’s baking board

MAY. Besides being one of the top twelve most beautiful months in the year, it has been designated by the Catholic Church (this devotion arose among Jesuits in Rome in the late 18th century) as the month of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the Western Church, the rosary is the preeminent form of prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary. MAY, the rosary prayer, and Blessed Mother go hand in hand…the word rosary comes from the Latin ROSARIUM, meaning CROWN of ROSES or GARLAND of Roses…how beautiful…I should say this prayer more often…

I place my rosary on Mama’s baking board. “This board has seen many loaves of bread made”, I thought as I looked at the large working space unbecomingly bare and now decorated with beads and a crucifix…I should start some sweet roll dough…

I began to play with the rosary as I drank my morning coffee. I shaped it into a heart…looked too much like Valentine’s day. Then I shaped it into a question mark. Rosary tonight…? Sweet roll dough?

MAY. Every night this month, at 6:30, the Grotto at St. Mary’s of Orchard Lake is the place to be. Rain or shine, this beautiful Mary prayer is said by people who gather together to be one voice, one voice calling on Mary’s intercession for so many of their personal intentions…many universal intentions…

Last night was the night for the LUMINOUS MYSTERIES, the MYSTERIES of LIGHT. Pope John Paul II introduced these new mysteries in 2002. In Pope John Paul II’s document on the Rosary, he reminds us, “The Rosary, though clearly Marian in character, is at heart a CHRIST-centered prayer…The whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of LIGHT. HE is the light of the world.” The BAPTISM of JESUS, the WEDDING FEAST AT CANA, JESUS’ PROCLAMATION of the KINGDOM, the TRANSFIGURATION, the INSTITUTION of the EUCHARIST…what beautiful events in the life of Jesus to meditate upon!

The fifth Luminous Mystery, Institution of the Eucharist, hit me hard last night…HE did not leave me orphaned…HE is my LIGHT…my BREAD of LIFE. “He who comes to me shall not hunger.” But, I do hunger for HIM more…I want to know HIM more…

This morning I think about this Marian Christ-centered prayer. I believe the Rosary can be a place, like Mama’s baking board, where good things will rise and take shape. I believe Blessed Mother Mary will always show me ways to love her Son more and more…

MAY. Mothers who love us in such sweet ways. Sweet roll dough. Mama’s bread board. The Rosary…here I come!

30 days Has April…

April 29th…Italian bread with sesame seeds…

As I was sipping my morning coffee, Don Squirrellioni sat perched outside, high on a Oak tree broken branch stub. He goes there every morning and waits patiently for me to throw him yesterday’s bread leftovers…

There were no scraps from the grandkids PBJ, I thought sadly, and not one bite of crusts from the guys late nite snack time pizza! So, on days like this, I break up a couple slices of RUSSO Bakery Italiano Bread with Sesame seed! Yes, my little backyard critters are spoiled.

I tossed the rather large portions of bread pieces onto the lawn in the backyard…before I could say, “Buon appetito”, Don Squirrelioni snatched up his first chunk of bread and scurried back up the Oak tree with breakfast in his hand, and a smile on his face for sure!

Waiting for the day when I can catch his smile on camera…and drink a HOT cup of coffee!