Easter & Springs: My Favourite Things!

Okay, it's officially here... My favourite season has always and will always be spring!  The outside smells so fresh and earth with the ground thawing out and nature coming to life.

Easter is also my favourite holiday! Something about it being in tandem with spring and representing new life and birth is exciting.  

Warning:  this post is photo heavy!

Licorice and I took a long walk this past week and I enjoyed snapping some pictures.

A couple views from the top of the James Street stairs

Then we walked around in the park for a while at the top of the stairs and saw some cool things

In this park, it almost looks like a moor in Scotland

Licorice and I love that park.

A few more things that make me happy...


Watching the sunset from my bed ~

Easter eggs ~

My new hurricane lamp (from Giant Tiger!) ~

Matt put up the mirror/candle piece in the hallway ~

I snapped a sunset pic from work this week ~

That's all for now! Hope you are all having a blessed and wonderful Easter!

Lent, God & faith

"Becoming by grace what God is by nature..." -St Athanasius

Lent is a Catholic tradition/ritual that has crossed over to other denominations. Even though I don't celebrate the Catholic faith (salvation by works is a daunting belief), I do enjoy the period of self sacrifice and fasting from some type of activity or enjoyment. The word "lent" comes a Germanic word for "springtime" and that's an interesting way to view the weeks leading up to Easter--as a time for a type of spiritual spring cleaning...fasting from the things that might clutter up your faith or your belief system.

The idea of becoming more godly (or Godlike) is an intriguing concept as well. How much do I even know or understand God? I do believe that He exists but how I personally interact with Him is a different discussion. What does it mean to me to become more godly?

Ultimately I think it comes down to self renewal and growth. It's a time for one to look at their life and assess habits or attitudes that might stand in the way of said growth and change, which is why it's usually a good idea to sacrifice something that could be considered a vice or a negative habit in ones life.

Anyway, this Lent I've decided to give up desserts. It's a tough call because there's nothing like going out for a slice of cake with friends or snacking on cookies. In some ways I feel like I pussied out because I should have given up something that would be much more difficult to do without--listening to music, for example. Or no Internet.

I wonder sometimes how much my faith is one of convenience...and I wonder how this convenience has compromised the authenticity of it. Shouldn't devout Christians be willing to give up everything for the God that they worship and love?

I guess we're all in development, constantly being perfected and growing, and I think it would be good for everyone to go through this type of self examination... We can get too comfortable with the way that we are and close ourselves off to changing.

But hey, those are just my random thoughts of the day. That and--my sister broke up with her boyfriend yesterday afternoon. I came home from work to a dark apartment, her curled up in a fetal position in bed, Mr. Cat awkwardly sitting outside her door as if waiting for me to come home and talk to her.

"How did it go?" I ask, standing at the end of her bed.
"Hard," she says. "It was hard to see him cry..." Her voice trails off and she turns away toward the wall.
I feel a twinge of fear as I consider how much I care about the guy in my life and how I would feel if I was in the same situation.

Grace...I have yet to learn the true meaning of that word in my life. It's something to contemplate, for sure.

May you be blessed through this spring, a time of change/renewal/growth/new life, whether you believe in God or not, whether you celebrate Easter and the Lenten period or not, whether you are living with doubts or walking in complete and utter faith.

Peace.

I just realized that I never continued with my re-watch of the Harry Potter series. I only watched the first one, and then somehow managed to get caught up in something else. So there's something I need to do this weekend...as I have the next five days off, and am already scratching my head about what I will do with all my free time. In some ways, I wish I was working, as it doesn't feel right to sit around and do absolutely nothing.

Anyway, so I need to continue with the Harry Potter re-watch, and also watch the following things:

*the last three aired LOST episodes (I don't even know how I fell behind on this)
*Generation Kill (my brother keeps nagging me about watching this)
*The Pacific (after all ten episodes have aired though)
*Journeyman (it's been on my external drive for over a year)
*Dollhouse season two (also been sitting there, waiting for a long boring weekend)

And I'm sure I have more that I just can't think of off the top of my head at this moment. Most of the time, I simply find it hard to get up the motivation to start watching. Once I have the momentum going, it's all downhill from there.

In the meantime, a blessed Easter to all those who celebrate it accordingly...may the hope of this holiday accompany you in the upcoming spring and summer.

[Marcia Is Saying] Freedom!

I find it rather tragic that we'll never completely understand how dark and desolate life was before the coming, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Bound to fulfill the law, repeatedly unable to do so, sacrificing animals as an atonement for sin, and grace not demonstrated to it's full capacity in life. No hope for complete salvation...

How we take for granted the gift of grace, faith, love, and hope that has been so freely extended to us, and which we can grasp if only we should choose to do so.

Everyday we take advantage of the greatest sacrifice, everyday we live by grace, believing with all faith that God has forgiven us, loving only because He first loved us, and being filled with a hope for a future.

As you pass through this Easter weekend, take time to reflect on your life now, and what it used to be. And if you don't a difference, reflect on what your life could be.

Have a blessed Easter.