31 March 2013

today is easter

i woke up this morning at the exact time i'd intended to rise -- though i failed to set the alarm. the brightest light streaks blasted through the windows, illuminating every speck of dirt on the glass and reverberating that much more -- onto the bed, through the kitchen. and the pealing of a steeple bell in a church a few blocks from here ushered in the time 6 a.m., then 7, then 8. i shuffled around. 

easter, for me, growing up: a fresh dress, catholic mass, then brunch, then hunting for eggs in the yard. some years we went to our regular parish, other years to the national cathedral -- the genuflections, the murmurs, the chorus, the incense and tabernacle all the same, but the significance and sound of each thing was magnified in the cathedral. my brother called the bells "deafening" and would wait in the gardens till they passed to sneak inside and find us in the pews. the rest of us dismissed this -- an exaggeration, an excuse for a quiet moment. it wasn't until years later they discovered his epilepsy. the sounds and the lights, and every speck of matter aggrandized, taking over his brain in a way the rest of us understand only abstractly, the way stained glass can only really be appreciated, completely, from the inside. 

every little act of love is augmented. just as the dirt broke the light, or the dome of the cathedral magnified the bells, the way they echoed more intensely in my brother's head -- things that seem so small never really are. not ever. today, especially, my faith reminds me of that. there's divinity in the humdrum. you can never really own what you keep -- only what you give away. 


  1. Gorgeous photos, so spring like! x



  2. "you can never really own what you keep -- only what you give away."
    this line is insanely beautiful. a breathtaking little string of words that i wanted to read over and over again. thanks for that :)

  3. What a beautifully written nostalgic sounding post. The way you woke up sounds wonderful, waking early without an alarm is just the best.

    http://tea-drinkingbookloverdiary.blogspot.co.uk X

  4. I once read that you use the VSCO app. I can't figure out how to make my photos look like that. What number of filter are you using? Also, your words are very beautiful. As well as your photos.

  5. "there is divinity in the humdrum"