Another Blessed Sunday

Today was really lovely. The weather was quite crisp, even fall-like, which in my opinion is WAY too early (I mean, it was like 100 degrees here just last week!) but it was lovely nonetheless. I finally got back to church after missing so many services over the summer. Starting this fall they have moved to two services, 9:15 and 11:15. I attended the 11:15 service and it was just so, so great. The sermon, Surge, was quite political and powerful. Reverend Hardies, whom I have never heard preach, was at the pulpit today after a six month sabbatical. He was good. He makes no apologies for his stance on the war. Basically he said what is needed in Washington is a surge of honesty and a surge of courage and within the community a surge of principled opposition and a surge of foot soldiers for peace. When he finished he got an ovation! One of the hymns we sang was really moving. The beautiful lyrics are set to beautiful music. We sang This is My Song. It is a beautiful, beautiful hymn about the universal wants and desires and sameness of all mankind. A song of peace. We only sang the first two stanzas. It wasn't until I googled it to paste the lyrics here that I realized that it actually had more stanzas. Unitarians, accepting of all spiritual and religious beliefs, printed the song in the hymnal surreptitiously omitting the stanzas with a clear Christian theology. In any event, I love this song and in light of the present circumstances in the world it was particularly apropos.

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

After church I baked a 1-2-3-4 cake, my grandmother's specialty. It's a favorite in my family and I haven't baked one in years. (I used to bake a lot. When I was in high school my parents would often come home from work to a tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. I used to have the Tollhouse cookie recipe memorized!) But, with more knowledge about health, and very slowly trying to make the transition to a healthier lifestyle, I made some modifications on the recipe. It's called a 1-2-3-4 cake because the main ingredients are 1 cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour and 4 eggs. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm. (Are your arteries clogging up as you read this?) Well, I don't even buy butter or sugar anymore so I substituted them with what I now use. Instead of sugar I used Sucanat and instead of butter I used Earth Balance. But then I worried it might be too healthy so I used half and half instead of milk :) I was making this for my neighbors so I decided to put a tiny bit in a pan for me to taste before I took it over there so I wouldn't embarrass myself. But what do you know?! It was tasty! I frosted it and took it over to them when I expressed my condolences for their loss.

Then, along with all the boring house chores --laundry, dishes, etc.--my neighbor A stopped by. She just had a little girl a month ago and she is absolutely precious!! I got to hold her. She is so small. I was a little bit nervous. Though I have worked with kids for 14 years, I haven't actually been around a baby-baby in a long time. We talked about pregnancy and adoption. Seeing her teeny, tiny baby made me almost think I should go ahead with IUI. I may; but I still have to get my daughter waiting for me in Ethiopia!