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Rain Barrels from the Aquarium

  Thoughts on the Strangeness of Easter

God is about making you new

Pictures from Chernobyl

4/27/2011

Good morning, God.

  Another day seems like another miracle from your generous hands.  Gifts fall forth like marbles from your hand, rolling across the land as eyes open to another beautiful sunrise, careening into our lives as gifts for which I am so grateful.  What a marvelous gift today is--may I live in wonder of it all day long.

  Lord, storms race across the country, and I pray for those who are in their path.  I pray for those whose life have already been torn asunder by them, and for those who mourn the losses from their terror.  I pray for those who have no place to go when the sirens sound, who huddle in doorways and search for whatever shelter the merciless city has to offer.  Forgive us, Lord, for creating a society where such things can be true, and imagine with us how we can ensure that such things do not continue to be so.

  I ask for your wisdom today, Lord.  Guide my thoughts and my heart to focus on you, that all I do may be for your glory.  May I not focus on the semi-precious gifts the world offers me in return for my heart, but may I focus my gaze on you and pursue you with passionate abandon.

  I love you, Lord.

  Amen

Onions!

  Our baby, this week, is the size of an onion.  Which leads me to a confession--I buy Spanish onions at the grocery store simply because they sound so much more exotic than the regular, plain onions.  I have no idea if they taste differently.  I feel more cultured buying 'Spanish onions'.

  Which, of course, leads me down a different path.  When Rachel and I were looking at day cares, we were very interested in whether or not the day cares taught the children Spanish.  Obviously, Spanish language skills will only prove to be more helpful as the number of Spanish-speaking residents of the US increases.  But I'm still trying to figure out why we became so caught up in this, as though a daycare not teaching Spanish would have been the end of the world as we know it.  I don't speak Spanish, and am not actively trying to learn.  Rachel hasn't spoken Spanish in roughly seven years, and she's not working on her Spanish.  How is a child ever going to retain anything it learns in daycare if it never hears a word of it at home?

  I'm thrilled about the idea that the daycare will be very intentionally diverse, both in terms of language and culture, but how do I reflect that importance in my own life?  Am I content to say that it's good enough for my child, but not important for me?

  Just things to think about.

  In related news, Rachel went to the doctor this morning, and everything looks great.  The doctor said the baby is moving around a lot, undoubtedly because, since it can now hear, it has Bon Jovi stuck in its head, and its rocking out.

  In unrelated news, due to the fact that my car now plays my iPod on random whenever I drive somewhere, I now know all the words to 'Be Our Guest' from Beauty and the Beast.  I have no idea how it ended up on my iPod, but, well, there it is.

Daily Stuff

I almost always enjoy David Brooks' articles--here's one on the state of the political system.

Two upcoming webinars:

• Growing Community through local food.
• Community Food Security

A Final Four for the rest of the world

The biggest known spider fossil has been found!  Yay!