Slouching Toward Chocolate Bunnies

Tonight I was quite overwhelmed with the desire for mint chocolate truffles, to the point where I started shaking and having strange visions.

It's only the 5th day of Lent. I'm doomed.

Then I spotted on my heating bill, an option to donate a dollar to help fund low-cost heating for folks who can't pay their bills.

And I felt like a real loser.

(That's called perspective.)

And maybe like I could live without mint chocolate truffles for tonight. Though I repeat: I do hope that Jesus does appreciate my sacrifice. Okay I am essentially joking about that.

But not entirely.

Anyway, I drew some pictures to make sense of some things in my head.

Like the joy of communion. I was thinking about the Eucharist, a constant source of confusion and anxiety for me, as I step up to receive it and think "What IS this?" I have read all kinds of theology about it and I'm still stumped.

However, something that helps me work through it is thinking of it in very literal terms: I am receiving bread and wine. What does bread do? It nourishes, strengthens, energizes. The act of sharing it with others is inter-culturally recognized as a bonding experience. It satisfies, and to share it with others shares that satisfaction in a most joyful of ways. Eating is joyful!

What does wine do? It warms up conversation, forms immediate intimacy, it delights and loosens and calms people, it allows for deeper expression of thoughts and feelings. It is dangerous; it kills germs. And it, too, is joyful!

I like to think of the Last Supper as a rather jubilant affair. I like to think that everyone got pretty tipsy and kept having to go to the bathroom and Jesus was trying to start up games of Scrabble and everyone had to cool it when the neighbors began to complain.



I drew a little picture of a tree, the likes of which I've seen in Haitian folk art at Ten Thousand Villages. I keep thinking about Haiti but I feel very helpless and discouraged. I can do nothing but pray, and praying seems so futile. People have been praying for Haiti for years, before the earthquake, and now it's an even worse situation. I don't get it. I do know that we have to keep praying. I just don't really get how or why.

Okay, Saint Francis, what would you say?

Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
Where there is sadness, joy
...
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.


Then I worked on a birthday songbook for someone quite dear, so she never forgets the best lyrics.

My friend Seth put this in my favorite song of his: I'll walk along just like a reindeer. I asked "Why a reindeer?" and he said that reindeer always look so calm and steady, like they need nothing but to be where they are and what they are.

I didn't mean for this to come out sideways.

I also didn't particularly mean for this saxophone to look like a swan.

But I do hope the Birthday Girl gets the subtle Hagia Sofia reference in this sucker.

Tomorrow I start another week. Ish.

Easter, you feel so far!