I'm tempted to try and write a blog that catches my theoretical "readers" up on what's been going on in my life but aside from the painful truth that I probably no longer have any readers (except good mother earthie who is caught up anyway) I'm afraid I might not get to writing anything else and that will kill the sudden impulse that I have to do so.

So here I am in a groovy artsy local coffee shop in my neighborhood in Denver sitting next to a group of guys who on the surface seem to be social outcasts but as I listen and learn more seem like complete weirdos. I mean weirdo in a good way of course, they march to their own beat, color outside the lines....you know the drill. And they read poetry, currently racking their brains to interpret what the author could have possibly meant in the third stanza by "the tree". On the couch across from me is a very trendy young couple taking a break to fawn upon each other before she dives back into her novel and he goes back to his, no doubt riveting, book entitled "Anesthesia and co-existing disease". I'm glad somebody studies this stuff. The coffee table in the center of the room has everybody's favorite page turner, "Women and the crisis in sex hormones" and as I rip my eyes away from it and glance into the adjoining room I see an overly giddy lesbian couple pretending to have their noses buried in a book. Yep....this aint Starbucks.

Hubby and I have been talking a lot lately about liturgy and what exactly a renewal...resourcement...resuscitation? of music in liturgy might look like...ok..SOUND like. I think one of his favorite images concerning the liturgy is from our beloved Pappa Bene in his book "The Spirit of Liturgy". He likens our participation in the Mass to that of children playing. As children play teacher or house or fireman so too do we "play" heaven in the Sacred Liturgy. This is a beautiful image and it's caused some serious reflection on my part lately. When we speak of it I instantly want to speak of where the analogy falls short (as if I have a critique of Ratzinger) how our "playing" heaven in the Mass is not simply pretending but a real participation in the marriage supper of the Lamb. But as I let it set a little deeper I'm not so quick to dissect the image. There is something very real present when a child pretends. I can recall as a kid having imaginary friends. I can recall hours of playing with them and hours of playing house with my friends in the schoolyard. But I can't recall us all sitting down to check on each others mental clarity of the situation. "Susie, you do realize that we are just imagining hypothetical situations and that there is no tea in those cups?" * note: as I type this a family with two children walk in and almost instantly begin to play "dogs"...priceless*
Sure, I guess if you asked most well adjusted children what 'pretending' means they'll probably say something about it being 'not real' but there is a level to their playing that invites reality despite what they, or their parents say. We embody that same reality (to its fullest) when we participate in the 'work' of liturgy.

I'm just gonna sit with that and reflect as the barking gets louder.

For those of you who used to read this blog and stumble upon it now in the desperate hopes that there may be a new post. I will leave you with a picture of our wedding. Consider it a preview to a later blog.