Sights and Sounds from the Passover-Easter Weekend 4.21.19

Shabbot candle and prayers in Hebrew and English.  We kept the door open at sundown to welcome anyone to join us.  It remained just the two of us, but past and present family and friends were with us at the table

A simple meal of roasted chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary cut from our yard.  Matzo and meringue cookies.  We finished the day with a ride through yellow blossoming palo verde trees and the breeze of sunset.  Coming down the foothills, the pink full moon waved us home.

Saturday was stuffed with "to dos" that got done so we could relax on Sunday.  An early task was planting a few marigolds that reminded me of my mom and her mom.  In the middle of the day, we enjoyed a stuffed egg salad sandwich at Rin Con Market. At night, we watched the first hour of Cecil DeMille's the Ten Commandments during light Passover meal of matzo, greek salad, and grapes.  I first saw the movie at the Crocker Theater in Elgin, Illinois and watched in amazement as technicolor parted the Red (Reed) Sea into a new world for Jews and Gentiles.  On the other side of the sea, the Commandments, behind the Jews as they crossed, soldiers and the plagues, in front, far way, the prophesy of the Messiah.

Later, I listened to Mozart.

In the morning of Easter, the breeze turned to wind.  I watered flowers, fed the birds.  Skimmed the news and dressed for service.  The big Methodist music at Catalina Methodist Church, exceeded expectations.  The words from the music and from the pulpit of Pastors Dottie and Jamie brought an interfaith and "all are welcome here" message of mindfulness in the "meetup" moments we take with us into the broader and sadder world.

At the end, brass, organ and full choir four voices (the sopranos soared) welcomed us to stand and sing Handel's Messiah chorus.

I lost count of how many "alleluias" we said or sang this morning.

As the day ends with another simple Passover meal, punctuated by a return to secular life, I will watch Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in "The Easter Parade."

A full weekend of reflection, meaningful memories old and new, and faith and hope triumphant over fear.

De Grazia Chapel, now perished by fire

Erasure Poem: Bottles, Twigs, Cans and a Piano

I try to (occasionally) practice the erasure poem genre as described and demonstrated by Austin Kleon in his book Steal like an Artist.   Here is my latest, prompted by an article in the New York Times, "Bottles, Twigs and Trash Cans (and Mozart)", by Anthony Tommasini, Music Review  8.5.17

It was an unusual sight, 
the Hall crammed with a motley assortment
of corked wine bottles, four gleaming trash cans
and small piles of twigs.

The members began to snap the twigs
and dump them on the floor.

Later, 
stretching of jumping rhythms
played by tapping
on a coffee table
as well as the outside
and inside
of a piano.