Sunday

 This by far was the most emotionally draining day that I have experienced in a long time.  And writing about it will be a hurdle to climb that should help with perspective.  Now that I have your attention here goes the day.  

Of course, it started with loading plants in the car for the plant swap.  It's always a high point of the year when I can share plants from the garden and then plant gifts brought to church by other folks.  It's just a wonderful gathering in the courtyard, talking about plants of all shapes and sizes.  So, the car was packed, and we headed south.  

                                    Thanks to the swap, this bed eventually will have a little color.

Now I must add that today was celebrated as Pentecost, my most favorite Sunday of the year.  It's red and I wore my loud shiny top. I call it the burning bush top. It's the birthday of the church.  Yeah!  

                                                Doesn't this look like a birthday party. 

To add to the morning the choir with a small orchestra were doing their spring music service singing Hayden's Mass for St. John of God.  When Doug and I were choir members we sang many beautifully crafted masses.  I miss that but the Latin words are still with me and a translation is in the bulletin.  So what could be better than plants, Pentecost and Haydn.  I couldn't think of a thing.  But there were surprises to come.  

As Doug was entering the sanctuary he picked up a bulletin discovering that the mass was missing  I was plant shopping.   He had the 8:30 service bulletin and not the 11:00.  I got an 11;00 bulletin discovering that the choir and choir director Mark Gilligan had commissioned an anthem honoring our 110 years of choir membership that we together had contributed.  The emotions were all over the place.  The words to the anthem were from Edna St. Vincent Millay a wonderful crafter of words.  The musical notes that put her words to music were written by Penny Rodriguez, a local Indianapolis person.  It was glorious.  Tears flowed for so many reasons.  My 57 years of membership at North.  Doug's 67 years with North.  Friends and the images of God and nature all heard with thanksgiving for life.   

Mark texted me one day asking what my favorite hymn was.  That wasn't a hard question at all.  Great is Thy Faithfulness.  This was one I learned as a child.  It was one that I sang in my head during head radiation treatments.  It made the time go faster when I was pinned to the table as the machine killed the bad and saved the good.  That was our closing song for the morning.  How wonderful to hear.  North is a singing church with ALL singing and the orchestra playing.  I tell folks to sing that at my memorial service.  Today I heard it with orchestra.  For most folks, that doesn't happen.  I sang the first verse, a little of the second and tears of gratitude started falling.  I listened to the third verse letting others sing it for me.  The emotional basket was overflowing.  Blessings all mine and 10,000 beside.  I had a wonderful visit with Penny after church.  I picked up my plants that I had chosen, and Doug drove a totally exhausted Ms. Daisy home. 

The day has been full. I took a nap. I planted plants I brought home, thinking about the day.  We did a run to Wild Birds restocking for the woodpeckers, thinking about the day.  Watched the Pacers win a big one, thinking about the day.  Grateful for Andrew Russell taking our place in the choir and thinking about the day. And just thinking about the day filled with emotions of all kinds but a huge one being gratitude.   

                         This picture was a 10:40 rehearsal getting ready for the 11 o'clock service.

Edna' poem is called Renascence with the words for this anthem a small part of that poem.

Penny Rodrigues named the anthem   The Soul Can split the Sky. 

Oh, God, I cried, no dark disguise can now or ever hide from me Your radiant identity.  And all at once the heavy night fell from my eyes and I could see.  I caught the freshened and fragrant breeze.  You breathed my soul back into me.  You cannot move across the grass, but my quick eyes will answer You.  I know the path that tells Your way through the cool eve of every day.  I can push the grass apart and lay my finger on Your heart! The world stands out on either side, no wider than the soul is wide.  Above the world is stretched the sky no higher than the soul is high. The heart can push the sea and land farther away on either hand. The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.