We are coming to the end of the Easter season that began with the open tomb that opened up so many possibilities! I remember in our freshmen dorm, my roommate and I were able to study with distractions (it is called multi-tasking these days) and we left our door open in the evenings.  It meant that our room was a bit of a meeting place, where our dorm mates would come to talk, to let off steam, to get help with class work.  We enjoyed becoming the ‘open door lounge’ of Hayden Hall.

 – or no moon as a person looking in the sky might observe.  Two weeks after the full moon that brought us Easter (1^st Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox …), we had a new moon (April 21) because the half of the moon reflecting the sun’s light was invisible to us on earth.

We are heading into the last days of Lent.  The weather of the past weeks has given us a foretaste of the season that is emerging all around us. The last days of Lent really lead us to the heart of the season.  The last days are the days of Holy Week when we see God’s heart for us revealed in the passion of Jesus.

On a recent visit to our granddaughters (and son and daughter-in-law’s), I learned that our son had taught our granddaughter how to play cribbage.  I used to play that game and had a vague recollection of the rules.  I watched as the two turned over cards and used one of the cribbage pegs to count off peg holes and move the pegs around the board.  Then, our granddaughter turned over a queen.  She did not move her peg – instead, her mom asked her a question (“Q” is for  question).  Soon, she turned over a jack and as I watched her jump up and down several times, I realized “J” is for jump.  The best part was when she turned over a king – her Mom came over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.  Yes, Opa, “K” is for kiss!

It’s Lent, and after we consider all that we might or could be doing – giving up, adding on – by way of Lenten discipline, Lent is about Jesus.  It is about Jesus’ journey.

I have wonderful memories of the homes I have lived in, but I never knew that so many interesting connections could be made to one’s home.  Until I read Bill Bryson’s book, At Home. Bill Bryson demonstrates both his humor and his curiosity about life and history as he takes the reader through the Victorian house of a former Anglican rector in Norwalk, England that became his home.

Scientists at CERN – the European Center for Nuclear Research – using the Large Hadron Collider on the border of Switzerland and France conducted tests last December that they hope will lead them to the discovery of the “God-particle”.  The “God-particle” is more affectionately known as the Higgs boson.  The existence of the particle has been predicted by physicists and would help explain why matter has mass (the kind of question that can keep people awake at night!).

Yes, ‘Fa’ with the eightfold ‘la’ — A nonsensical way to end the verses of  “Deck the Halls”.  We had a chance to sing this and other carols as our Advent, always-ready-for-prime-time, carolers donned our caps and antlers and went off to sing Christmas carols for our members (and friends).

“E” is for Ernst or E.T.A. Hoffmann whom we all remember from Jeopardy or Trivial Pursuit as the author of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, which was the basis for Tchaikovsky‘s famous ballet The Nutcracker.  I finally read Ernst Hoffmann’s work in my 50s when I was a Rotary reader in the West Chester School District.  It is a truly incredible tale!

One of the theological concepts we learn in Seminary is the concept of continuing creation.  The idea is that God did not simply create the world and leave it to its own devices – but God has an on-going role in the Creation.  Of course, there are many implications of this and we filled up quite a few hours discussing these …