An Easter Request

Today, my One-Hour-A-Day-Dog decided she would like to become an organist.

However, after my description of the stops, keyboards, and footboard -- familiarity I learned from playing the pipe organ at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Gracie turned in disappointment to mark yet another patch of grass, and I felt compelled to join her.

A Late Afternoon Stroll Has Its Rewards

What's Not to Love?

I

from above the narthex of All Saints' Chapel.

II

through the winding stairs' window on my way down

III

in Gracie's joy

Though sorely tempted

I didn't dare

Here Comes the Sun!

Sun sun sun, here it comes!

 And here's what it does.

Good day, sunshine! I feel good in a special way. I'm in love with a sunny day!

On Day 2 with a New Camera

I decided to go to All Saints'.

Two hundred plus pictures later, I came home, happy, even though I couldn't do what a Facebook friend does with apparent ease: take one decent shot of a fully focused glass reflection and whatever's beyond it.

Notes to self: ask B how he does it, and keep trying.

After Lessons and Carols

The nearest I ever come to a religious experience: the playful magic of light through stained glass.

It's enough for me.

More than enough.

Light Show

In All Saints'
winter's late afternoon
sun slides
down stained glass
transforming
light into liquid.

I Confess: I Am Old Fashioned

Among the many things about contemporary American religion I do not understand is the mega-church phenomenon, built on the model of the big box store, I suppose -- something for everyone, but not folks like me.

In this respect I am a fuddy-duddy: I may not believe but I do love sacred spaces for ritual (and don't even get me started on "praise and worship songs").

These two spaces will do for me.

Sewanee's All Saints' Chapel

Exeter College Chapel, Oxford

Afterglow

The way late afternoon sunlight washes a chapel arch, in pastel splotches of multicolored rouge, reminds me of a fresnel twilight, fading to black: 

(be)witching hour. 

Just Call Me Curmudgeon

Some students arrived mid-week and others dribbled in since.

The rest will storm the campus within ten days.

Meantime, I treasured this last tranquil Friday evening after my movie date with Boo.

Convocation

Today, I decided to attend the convocation opening the Easter term at the college. Each semester, honorary degrees are awarded and a short speech is delivered by a notable honoree. In the spring, students elected to the Order of Gownsmen are also inducted.

Today, four individuals received honors (including Father Fritz Lafontant who, with Paul Farmer, started the medical mission in Haiti made famous in Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond Mountains). Historian and writer Godfrey Hodgson delivered a short address that focused, appropriately, on Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. I'd like to say his talk was inspiring, but it wasn't.

What was impressive was what I always find impressive: the beauty of All Saints' Chapel. Sitting inside, I never fail to feel a sence of calm when I look upwards -- at the valuting and stained glass and organ pipes and rose window. The chapel is especially beautiful on a fall late afternoon when the sun throws flaring bursts of colorful light against stone like silent fireworks. I love sitting alone, then, in near darkness.

I celebrate the astronomical show.