Christ is Risen!

First and foremost, I’m grateful for God’s love, in the many “everyday” ways, but of course, because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross. It’s a tough thing to wrap one’s mind around, even knowing the story from the time I was very small. One can understand a story as a child, but it takes getting older to peel back the implications of a lot of things. With this, a lifetime is still not long enough. I am grateful for the easy access to hearing people who do think about these things – sure, one has to be careful not to get carried away on weird teachings, and there’s no lack of those online, but it amazes me that I can click over to Youtube and listen to some very high-quality talks for free. One that a friend sent me that I enjoyed a lot is this:

I am grateful that it ended up being a good weekend, even without the kids. I managed to make it to two services on Friday, an hour of reading from the Psalter on Saturday, Paschal services over Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and then Agape Vespers today. After Agape Vespers, there was a picnic, and the weather was perfect and it was a lot of fun to sit and chat.

i am thankful that despite my issues with oversleeping and getting things done on time as of late, it seems that there haven’t been too many repercussions. I’m thankful that even though I got caught in a brief storm yesterday, I had places to pull off until things had lightened up enough that I could see.

I’m grateful that I got a lot of stuff accomplished this past week. I suppose I should be grateful for the zombie dandelions that keep me from admiring my work on the lawn too much, but I’m still working on that. I am thankful, though, for the many beautiful tulips that have been blooming this year – it’s been a long time since they have been anywhere near this good.

I am thankful that I got to go to an event this weekend, and that I got to do a little bit of a side quest on the way to the event. I hope that the effort might bear some good fruit in the future.

I’m even a little grateful that Substack seems to be having some of its weekend issues – right now I can’t use most buttons, including those needed for posting – and so I have a bit of breathing room before feeling obligated to “catch up” with my normal Saturday posts.

I am grateful to still be standing, even in the midst of a lot of storms and uncertainty. I’m grateful that by sending a number of friends messages for Pascha, I ended up “chatting” via text with two people I haven’t talked to in years. I am so very thankful for all of you as well, for your attention and comments, prayers, and all those things.

Christ is Risen!

---