Easter 2013

There's more to it than Easter eggs and candy.

Ever since the stone was rolled away, Christians have celebrated Christ's resurrection. He is a man for all seasons, races, ages, beliefs. He showed us how to live and how to die and is still with us. I know including Him in my life makes it work better.

 I look at Christ's way and contemplate my contribution to the whole. Perhaps the best thing I can do is live through my heart. Live love, forgiveness, compassion, patience, and service. Be slow to anger. Listen. Allow others their own beliefs without judgement. Yes, live without judgement. I don't walk in anyone else's shoes. I do not know every experience they have lived that shaped them to this moment.

My life is longer and more complicated than what has happened since I was born. From years of digging, I KNOW I have lived in other times and places. Where love lives, hearts are forever connected. Love at first sight is picking up where we left off.  Past life unresolved issues returned to be resolved. At least now I'm aware and take pains to resolve them. I'd rather recycle paper and cans than discordant thoughts and feelings.

Life is fascinating. I am determined to complete mine in peace and harmony and maybe graduate as Christ taught us. To you and yours, Blessings this Easter, whether you celebrate or not.

2013 Red Convertible Travel Series

EASTER 2011

The past few weeks my internet, computer and camera have been on the blink. Maybe it was Mercury Retrograde, maybe not. To see the pics with this story, go to my Facebook page: Maeann Jasa.

When the Methodists organized a church at Friars Point, MS in 1836 they had hopes of esatablishing an anchor for their community. Twice the church has been destroyed, once by Union troops during the Civil War and later by a tornado. At the 9 am service Pastor was quick to point out his own faults and remind us that Christ paid the price for us, our job is to believe and live/be like Him.

The Easter bunny had hidden bucketfuls of brilliantly colored eggs for little people to find. While they hunted, I snapped pics for you that are on facebook. In the block south of the church stands The 1850's MINIE BALL HOUSE that bears the mark of Union Navy shelling and was briefly the headquarts of Union General Napoleon Bonaparte. This was before the Levy separated the town from the MS River.

Speaking of the River, it's rising. The National Weather Service River Forecast Center publishes the River stages online. The Mississippi River is expected to crest at Helena, AR May 10th at 49.5' above flood stage. The Levy is about 70' high. Thank God for engineering, or we'd all need houseboats!

Muddy Waters, King of Chicago blues, lived his first 30 years on the Stoval Plantation. The family log house was moved to downtown Clarksdale for exhibit. The placque marks where it stood. Shut your eyes, feel his "blues", smell the greens cooking, hear the cotton wagon mules bray and wipe your sweaty brow.

In the midst of MS's history, this tree caught my eye. If you know what it is and what it's growing, please explain. Imagination can have a field day.

The last picture is of a Quapaw Indian Mound in the Indian Mound subdivision on Farrel Road.

Back home we turned on the hall ceiling fan that sounds like a jet engine and feels like it will suck the paint off the walls. But, the heavy air is moving. Peas, greens and cornbread for lunch.

Oh, no, muddy Madchen slipped in. OUT!!!!!

2011 Red Convertible Travel Series

Easter 2010

Life rearranges
to adjust to the gap
so each may experience
their true spiritual path

Easter the 4th and Krysia's birthday would be the 6th.

It's celebrating Jesus Christ's overcoming death that inspires. Enough with the suffering already, his and everyone else's, I'm concentrating on "The Good News."

Andre Rieu is helping me sort my household. He fiddles while I work. But he's fiddling with the Holland Orchestra and is magnificent. Even Aja likes it. We have to stop and dance.

I had Minestrone with Alphorn Music that could be heard for miles, but without the beauty of the Alps. That's what memory is for. I had a large fresh salad with Andy Griffith when he explained Macbeth, as only he can.

My friend, Diane, is too busy with web design school to cook or dispose of her dozens of quarts jars. I gave her homemade Minestrone in two of my quart jars. fI won't repeat what she said.

This week I offered to fix them dinner. It started with a trip to the meat market for bottom round. Two grocery stores were required for the fresh veggies: potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, turnips and celery.

Inspiried by Vivaldi the menu grew from "Betty Crocker" Beef Stew to include "Joy of Cooking" Popovers. No stopping me now. A Romaine lettuce salad with chopped fresh tomato, sliced burpless cucs and scallions needed a low-cal Vinegarette dressing from "Joy of Cooking." Back to the grocery for Dijon Mustard, scallions and fresh lemons.

With Julia Child enthusiasm, I dug out my Mississippi "Belle's Best" cookbook and made a sourcream poundcake. Then back to the store. My intention was to buy a bag of frozen raspberries. Not at $7.05 a bag! Punt. Mashed fresh strawberries would work just fine. I had a small bottle of CA White Zinfenal to reduce the berries in. Now all I needed was a drizzle. In the frig was an almost empty jar of Hershey's chocolate topping. Bingo!

Dinner was a hit! Middle-schooler, Justin, wants to come and learn to make pound cake. Another kid in my kitchen. I love it.

"Julia and Julie," or is it "Julie and Julia," awaits my viewing. What better way to celebrate "The Good News" than sharing food with friends.

Easter Blessing. Take care of one another.

2010 Red Convertible Travel Series

Easter 2009 AD

Mother Mary relieved
He's alive
overcame death
the world changed
forever
He did it
for us

Thank you.

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

PALM SUNDAY 2009

Holy Week begins
Mother Mary's ordeal
even if she knew
the plan
of what
was to become
of Him/Her son
it still hurt

2009 Red Convertible Travel Series

JESUS CHRIST

msn photo

The why in Christmas.

2008 Red Convertible Travel Series

Mother's Christmas Choir

...and the Angels sang, Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth Peace and Goodwill toward man. We too celebrate the "Good News" of our Saviour's birth.

Mother is immortalized in pasta. Her angels bodies are what I call "garden hose" pasta. The wings are "bow-ties" with arms of macaroni. A small wooden ball, chip off the old block, is the head. I can still see her delicately painting the faces, gluing on the tiniest pieces of pasta for hair and a small piece of colored paper for the songbook. Her timeless, delicate, works of art are part of our tradition along with our Williamsburg wish box, Pinocchios from Italy, ornaments from Mexico, pairs of birds, angels made from hankies, crocheted, porcelain and a variety of other materials, and small ornamental pillows I created by tieing french knots in patterns. In the attic there's a small tree we don't put out because the cats undecorate it's tiny wooden German ornaments. We could do "tree under glass."

Kitchen activity is a constant. We are preparing travel food for friends flying Christmas Day: Bruchetta, stuffed mushrooms, crab dip with water crackers, and dried figs and dates stuffed with cream cheese and roasted CA almonds. I tried making chocolate truffles, just as I had other years. All four batches failed to set up. Basically whipping cream, cocoa, flavoring and Suzanne Somers sweetener, they are non-fattening. I converted them to mousse. Awesome! A couple of plastic spoons and they will still have chocolate dessert.

My gratitude list is longer this year. My daughter is seeing her second Christmas. Medical statistics said she wouldn't see last year's. By the Grace of God she soldiers on toward complete healing. Praise the Lord!

One of my dreams is to visit other parts of the world over the Holidays to see how it is celebrated, or not. Whatever works. May your Holidays be filled with love and joy. Best wishes for a healthy, happy, prosperous New Year. God Bless.

copyright 2007 Red Convertible Travel Series

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY 2007

MSN photo

Mothers of all life, this is our day.

Whether you lay eggs or give live birth,

we are all one.

God Bless

One of our cards read, "It's as if the doors of Heaven have been opened for a while." True.

Baby powder, Johnson's baby soap, tiny warm breaths, red lips, long dark lashes, and a mass of dark hair were just as Grandma predicted. I felt instant overwhelming love, as if I'd known her forever. Her helplessness matched my protectiveness.

Fast forward. Devastating news: cancer broke her back. She wouldn't live to see Christmas 2006. "This is not fatal, it's just a glitch in my system. I am not a statistic," she replied. I believed her. Her late father had come to her in a dream and told her she was not dying from this. He confirmed my gut feeling that she not only survives, she thrives and moves into a full life.

The morning after I received the diagnosis I awoke to see her cradled in Jesus Christ's arms with two tall ministering Angels working on her. Jesus told me he would carry her and see her through. She couldn't be in better hands. Thank you Lord.

To the outer world she and I stand strong in faith, two anchored trees in a hurricane of doubters. I stopped my life to breathe life into hers. Countless prayers from friends, family and people we will never know sustain and encourage us. Humor and gratitude are soul food.

By the Grace of God she not only lives, she improves steadily. It's May. This week she drove for the first time in over a year. No more screaming pain. She weaned herself off pain meds that messed with her mind. Her will isn't tough-as-nails, it's tough-as-railroad spikes.

Our Pastor says it's miraculous what the Lord has done, and is doing in her. The blessings are huge and many, and they keep coming. Her Oncologist, Chiropractor and Physical Therapist are each outstanding in their field. She hopes people see her life and healing as proof that God does care, and works for, in and through us. Without Him we are nothing.

copyright 2007 Red Convertible Travel Series

EASTER 2007

MSN photo

About Easter

This Easter we will walk across the street to the Methodist Church established in Friar's Point, MS, in 1834. Our Easter dinner will be a surprise later in the day on our way home. That's okay, we have lots of miles to cross.

Back home, Papa had to have a Lilly plant. Some families placed theirs in front of the church altar in memory of someone dear. Sneezes interjected the services.

Easter was sunrise youth services first, and then breakfast. The eleven o'clock service was a celebration in choir music. Lent was over. My Presbyterian background doesn't require giving anything up, but it keeps me in touch with the Passion. I didn't accomplish much giving up food, I did better working on giving up a bad habit. (Sometimes it took more than one Lent.)

The year I attended Easter services at the Assembly of God in Warner Robbins, GA, they put on a live performance of the Passion with a cast of dozens. The motion and commotion made further inroads in my belief bank, as does hearing the recorded voice of a deceased famous person.

Seeing the Passion Play at Spearfish, SD, made the whole business real and overwhelming; I forgot my childhood responsibility of keeping track of our family's dirty clothes. Several hundred miles later I confessed. Dad discovered his Masonic affiliation's worth when he went to buy us jackets. I don't remember he ever thanked me. Minnie liked my white imitation leather jacket better than hers. It had more colorful embroidery on it. She nagged me to look down knowing full well it would scare and sicken me. I liked mine too, and did not look down.

In Nashville, TN, the Easter service I attended was without piano or organ accompaniment. I was thankful they weren't relying on me to lead. Afterwards I learned it's their custom. Whatever works, there's no limiting God.

My daughters fondly remember new dresses, hats, white gloves, white straw purses, and paten-leather shoes for church, finding the marshmallow chicks under the front seat of the car and eating them, and hunting for the eggs they'd decorated.

Easter dinners involved the best dishes, linens, crystal, elaborate Ukrainian hand-decorated eggs displayed, and the ceramic rabbit pulling a cart filled with artificial grass and plastic eggs full of M&Ms - a lot of fuss.

We served Papa's homemade wine, ham, scalloped potatoes, asparagus or green beans, five-cup, Watergate or pretzel salad, deviled eggs, horn rolls, kolaches, and hot-cross buns. Dessert was angelfood cake with strawberries and whipped cream. One year a guest brought a cake in the shape of a lamb frosted white and covered with coconut. Yummy. And one more thing: all our guests, even those over eighty, hunted eggs. And a good time was had by all.

The times we did Easter brunch we used our clear purple dishes. They're springy. We bought service for eight at a fleamarket in Minnesota. Having left our boat motor at the lodge for fall fishing gave us just enough trunk space.

Our eyes were fed by the rich colors of the dishes, plump blueberries; cool green kiwi slices; juicy melon slivers; warm, buttery croissants, and Mexican eggs topped with hot Salsa. Dessert was a slice of Napoleon, the Lithuania tort made with custard and apricot between thin pastry layers.

We attend church and gather with family and friends to celebrate our Christian heritage. God's love and forgiveness for us, and Jesus Christ's cooperation with His plan for our benefit, is a knee bender. Thank you.

copyright 2006 Red Convertible Travel Series

MSN photo

The Christ in Christmas

2005 Red Convertible Travel Series