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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Easter is not the same this year, so what?

There was no donning an Easter bonnet today as it has drizzled one of those April rains, showers for May flowers...nevertheless,  happy Easter day and joyous season to all blog friends and followers; today we greet the day "He is Risen!"  I have been more absent than I like  from this blog as busyness consumes my time while I continue with double chore duties, some full time nursing duties and itch to get outside to begin the annual challenge to arthritis in my hands.  After a  very long winter abundant  pruning, raking. cleaning  of the lawns, flowerbeds as well as a sleepy rose garden will begin to whimper for attention. 

 Jerry's back surgery  Wednesday (April 16)  was a splendid success; the surgery which began at 12:25 PM  took less than an hour, by 3:00PM he was up walking so we were confident that we would be back home by  4:00PM.  Ah ha not so fast there,  when he was unable to "pee", the surgeon had warned about this, a common complication for men of older years, during surgery the bladder catheter caused his prostrate to protest angrily, to swell and prevent urination necessitating reinsertion of a tube catheter and bag which threw a wrinkle into the smooth mix, delayed our departure for home and is a minor annoyance until Tuesday when it will be removed.  His miraculous back surgery to  push the spinal jell back between the discs was a cake walk, he has a  one inch incision which was glued back together so no stitches, staples, and so far so very good.  Minor swelling and very slight bruising where the  muscle  was  prodded to push back the gel.  Just as we heard, Dr Watts, the newest Mayo neurosurgeon is a rock star and well deserving all his acclamation.  A genuine pro.   We are thankful.  Nevertheless some restriction of activities as all is not normal, not yet, but it will be soon.  Thus I am  busy attending to everything and the patient.  Although I disdain people who use Facebook as a blog and write their experiences ad nauseum, I admit to using it heavily, especially because it is so easy to post directly from my smartphone or tablet and update all at a moment. Certainly I do not post the length I do here (unlike those annoying ones) but Facebook is a  good way to get the word out toot sweet to many simultaneously.  

Shrine Fountain courtyard
I have previously mentioned that I am likely to return to Catholicism and have had a few recent experiences validating that choice.  On April 10 I joined some local Catholic women friends on a Lenten pilgrimage to the La Crosse Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  It was a beautiful day and after we climbed the mile hill to the shrine, sopping all along the way first at the Votive Chapel and all the saint statuary, attended mass, then walked back down to eat lunch at the cafeteria.  More information  about this local shrine, is online at this link    http://www.guadalupeshrine.org/   Once again I felt that deep sense of peace, blessing  and reassurance that  I only find at the Catholic churches and masses.  When this happens I recall my grandmother's admonition to me when as a child at mass in Latin or Polish neither of which I could understand I would fidget, "Patty be still and let the beauty be in your soul."  What made no sense then is perfectly clear to me now. Here are but a few photos.  

Shrine  Unborn memorial
Votive chapel at the shrine, first stop on the hill
I felt that same sense last night when I attended the Easter vigil mass at the local Catholic church last evening.  Father Havel's homily seemed destined for my ears as he wove a tale of his deer hunting experience into the Easter mystery and concluded many things happen in our lives that we cannot understand.  Try as we might our human reasoning fails us. But Easter reassures us all in God's good time, all will be revealed.  

We are doing Easter very differently this year, I purchased the ready to warm and serve meal from our local Festival grocery and am now happy I did so, pleased to have all the trimmings ready without extensive effort on my part.  This is a new experience for us; Before I would disdain this thinking "ICan  can fix that easily" today I am glad to have it available.  For only $29.99 we have 1.5 pounds of sliced,home cooked old fashion bone-in  ham with sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, wheat rolls and fruit salad.  There is more than enough for us and I picked up a fresh bakery apple pie onto which I drizzled caramel for desert, although Jerry sampled it last night, as he said, "to be sure it's OK for Easter."  Yes less fuss.  Long ago gone are the Easter days in California when we hosted huge events.  We are downsized and with good fortune soon will be on the move again.  

Meantime Peter Cottontail guards remaining Easter goodies array here.  Yesterday there were Jelly bellies and pastel creams with assorted candy corn, all too accessible walking by..Happy Easter again.

4 comments:

  1. I love that you found a deep sense of peace and blessing; it sounds like you are being led to the Catholic tradition. There is much beauty there. It sounds like your dh's back surgery is a grand success, just that glitch in the fast recovery.

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  2. Yes, Terra. I was raised Catholic and left it behind years back but have always continued some practices. I still believe faith is what counts regardless of how we practice that. My grandma said, "ridiculous, once a Catholic always a Catholic no matter what you say, Patty." I guess so,

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  3. Ou Easter dinner was delicious and more than enough for tonight, repeat. I am a fussy eater and do not like over sweet or salty things. So I had some trepidation. I am happy to report it was all excellent including the fruit salad which came in a whipped up type of cream, not overly sweet. Way more than enough for two people. I would get it again, a great way for us to have ham, I usually buy ham slice for the two of us and that's enough plus some left over for Jery's breakfast next day.

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  4. So glad to read this post and learn the sucess of Jerry's back surgery despite a small hiccup. Glad that overall things have tirned out for the better. Also a quiet holiday celebration is a good thing and not having to cook and fuss over the meal was even better. We were on a week long road trip to visit family members in NJ, RI, CT and PA and celebrated not only Easter but 2 birthdays. We arrived home tonite and it's good to sleep in our own bed again.

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