January 23, 2013
We are happy with the response to our new website. There are still some glitches to mend, but the work will be a joy. We want everything to be as clear and user-friendly as possible. I am making a LIST. (Ignore typos for the present. We will get to them.)
On the wildlife front: our flock of sparrows is still with us. We think they are sparrows. Clare, who is a bird-watcher, thinks they are sparrows. But little brown birds are not all that easy to identify. We have also a smaller flock of Western Meadow Larks. The males have yellow breasts with a chevron under the chin, so even klutzes like me can recognize them. They are also fat and bigger than the sparrows.
No more bears. No more javalina. No more snow. We hardly had any, of course. Plenty of COLD weather. Or cold for us. When we go under freezing, we dramatize ourselves. Never mind that Utah is fifteen below zero and the East is still dragging itself out from under Hurricane Sandy. We sympathize mightily and keep praying for our brethren abused by the god of storms. Fifteen degrees ABOVE zero is practically the Caribbean, isn’t it?
Oops—I just went to the window to check on why Shana is barking, and lo, on the other side of the glass sat what was probably a western towhee. She looked at me and I looked at her from a distance of about a foot, until off she went. I like those close encounters.
Shana barks pretty regularly at four in the afternoon. She doesn’t need an object or a threat. It is her entertainment. (If she does find a threat, the interest is heightened.)
I think a book list might be a helpful addition to the website.
We have packed away our Christmas by degrees. Now it is all gone and we look forward to an early Lent. The book buyer (me) has a stack of new interests for what we call Lenten Reading. I am sure I have mentioned this in former years. The Rule of Benedict prescribes a period of time each day during Lent given to lectio in common. (Consult the entry on lectio in the section on Our Community in this wonderful, updated website.) We find a place in the library to be quiet together with our book before Vespers.
We therefore choose a book especially for this, and receive it in a simple ceremony on the First Sunday of Lent. The chantresses give them out, and we bow deeply as we take the book into our hands, because lectio is a time of particular presence to the Word. Jesus himself is being put into the hands of his monastic follower. Anyone can do this. You don’t have to be a monastic. Being a monastic of the heart will do. Or just a person beloved of God as we all are. A small piece of time given to the simplicity of lectio can deepen the most frantic and burdened of Lents.