Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

On Tuesday, we went to the National Cathedral to hear Barbara Kingsolver reading from and discussing her new book, Animal,
Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life.

The writeup is here.

Saturday Faithspaces—They Walk in Hallowed Halls

Another in the stained glass series: The light cast by stained glass windows in the National Cathedral leaves the illusion of robed figures–one standing, one kneeling—on the marble floor.

I wish the picture itself wasn’t marred by camera movement, but it’s still startling—and lovely.

Saturday Faithspaces — Columns and Light

In the past couple of years, I have come to really appreciate stained glass windows, both as artistic works and as a channel for painted light. In October of 2005, I attended a conference in D.C. at the National Cathedral, and as the autumn afternoon sun bathed the Cathedral in its golden light, the windows caught it and transformed it.

Here, painted light spills onto a wall and column within the National Cathedral. I have several more from this series that I’ll make available as we go.

Pretty picture

Now that I have my own computer again, and a derned spiffy one at that, I’d like to return to posting faithspace photography and art. I may need to adjust my template accordingly, but I did design the header up at the top of this page and all of the pictures in it were taken either by me or my DFH.

For this week, and I hope to make this a regular Saturday thing, I offer my interpretation of sunlight streaming into the courtyard of Grace Cathedral. The original picture had a fascinating play of light in it, sun streaming down from a stained glass window, and I’ll post the original at some point. But it’s a very grainy photo for some reason, unusual for such bright light, and as I played with it to see what I could get, I wound up with this:

Note the lone figure just left of center: a tiny, older woman doing tai chi on an August afternoon.

Image copyright 2007, ScytheWorks Studios. Yes, that’s my photo/art name. 🙂

The Cathedral Advent Calendar

http://www.edow.org/spirituality/advent/

Sorry for being so quiet on this front. I've been sick for more than a
week now with the Cold That Wouldn't Die, and it's been very unfun. I
did, however, make it to St. Paul's in DC for their very long (but
beautiful) Advent Lessons and Carols service. And I met . DFH and lil'D accompanied us.

More later, as I have all manner of deadine hanging over my head.

Attn Dean/Theodora/Sulla/Anna

Sunday before 2:30 looks best. Fr. Jim is out of town this weekend so
i'm thinking about coming in and visiting St. Margaret's in the
morning and then bopping over to the cathedral. Thoughts?

November 12

No guided tours of nave (main) level due to annual docent training.
Nave level open in morning for worshipers only due to diocesan
confirmation service.

November 13

Nave closes at 2:30 pm for concert.

Also available on Sunday, a talk from the Dalai Lama at 3 p.m.:

http://www.dalailamadc.org/talk/tickets.php

There's also something going on Friday night–
Meditation on the Move:
From Monastery to Lab to Main Street
Daniel Goleman, Jon Kabat-Zinn and Thomas Keating
with Lynn Neary
This year the Mind and Life Institute is coming to Washington and
expanding its reach to include the Christian contemplative
perspective. (Tickets are $15, $8 for students)

Full info
here.

Cathedral lights

This is where the “Hey, Shiny!” comes in. But I'm starting a photo album at flickr of faith spaces. I'm gallycat and/or deviathan at flickr too.

There is incredible beauty in faith spaces. I know the emergent church tends toward creating faith spaces outside the usual, but I'm big on traditional ones as well. I think I will make an effort to pursue a very broad album.

I have a lot to put together with regard to this conference. Three nifty things for me personally are that I have been invited to write for Sojourners, been invited to speak to a class of seminarians on the relationship between religion and the media, and offered to edit a bimonthly newsletter for CrossLeft.

in the meantime, pretty pictures.

I have had the most blessed day

I've taken to hanging out with K once a week during the week, cause every third weekend just isn't enough when you're only 30 minutes away and I think the D in English had something to do with that. He's pulled it up to a B- as of today, mind you.

But on another front, he had a field trip to the National Cathedral today. He really wanted me to chaperone the trip because he's still not totally comfy with religion except as transliterated by my punkrustic filter (in which the liturgy goes something like, “Yo, God, you're like the father and stuff.” He laughs, but it diffuses the gravity and helps him approach his own questions on faith more comfortably.) I couldn't go along, though, because I have a lot of time off scheduled ahead and I didn't know about this one til I had already tweaked my work schedule to a point that I have no wiggle space. As it is, I'm writing two stories tomorrow for a deadline that was Monday.

He was terribly excited that he was going to be able to take money and spend it at the gift shop. I had no idea what he might get there, because he's about as spiritually inclined as a fannish teen magazine.

When I hooked up with him tonight, he poured a necklace into my hands, with a Jerusalem Cross, a nice, tastefully sized pendant.

I about died on the spot. God had guided his choice. It was exactly what I've been looking for since I came back to church. Exactly. He had no idea why he picked it out. He just thought it looked cool and that I would like it. He really hasn't been exposed to the church enough to know recognize it.

Wow. So I was slated to write a devotion for the RevGalBlogPals Advent Devotional, and was kinda wondering, hmmmm, what on earth can I write about that ties in Christmas giving and God sending his son?

Thank you father, cause you really knocked me and the kid upside the head today, and we're both totally full of joy for having been thusly biznitchslapped.