sabbath day, vintage necklace, good-bye festivities

good-bye, birthday week:  vintage birthday necklace with lucite crystals from my mom.  used to belong to grandma eva, who died in 1991.  any guess as to the vintage?  '80's? '60's?

good-bye birthday week, fire works, family reunion, wedding celebrations, cooking, brothers and sisters, eva and anna, messy kitchen, smokin' band, adorable babies, beautiful dresses.

it's coming to an end, and this restful sunday feels so quiet.

good-bye, jazz trio.  

here's a line from the hymn we sang in church today, a line that really speaks to me, in a hymn that's pretty funky, but kinda cool:

May we no more our pow’rs abuse,
But ways of truth and goodness choose;

it's from the hymn, "know this, that every soul is free."  the message of the hymn is that we are free to choose "what [we'll] be" because "god will force no man [soul? the title was changed to be gender inclusive, but not the hymn text] to heav'n."  

the idea of abusing power is really interesting in a text that is all about personal choice.  if each person chooses the way of truth and goodness, no more power will be abused.  simple, right?  this idea occurs a lot in yoga, that your personal sitting and meditation can spread peace and justice.  i love the chance to meditate on these ideas both in church, in yoga, and in poetry reading and writing. 

good-bye family reunion week.

here are some lines from poems in rabindranath tagore's gitanjali, a collection of devotional poems i was reading during church (a birthday gift from hilary and joe): 

i ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side. the works that i have in hand i will finish afterwards.  . . . 

now it is time to sit quiet, face to face with thee, and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

at the end of a week of celebrations, it's time to sit quietly, to rejuvenate, to reflect, to think of ways to not abuse power, to display dedication to the good and true.  

good-bye, beautiful dresses.

most of my family has returned to their far-away homes.  workaday will return monday, after we've eaten a final supper tonight of wedding leftovers with my parents and baby sister and her family.  this ebb and flow of work and rest feels so good right now.  i love both the work and the rest today.  

another section from the tagore poem says:  away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.

good-bye, adorable toddlers.

this is why i love the day of rest-- to look on thy face, to sit quiet and face to face with. . . god. . . my mother. . . a stream. . . the pages of a book that look different on this day than on any other.  

looking forward: to returning to work tomorrow.

inspiration:  devotional texts, a day of rest