Hindu devotees offer prayers during the annual month-long festival of Magh Mela.

Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP

Let it snow...

Mei Xiang plays in the snow at Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington.

REUTERS/Mehgan Murphy

Patterns XVI

Tapan Das, a 9-year-old farmer, works in a cabbage field at Chandapur village.

This poster was produced by the Churches Advertising Network – an independent group of UK Christian communicators - for Easter 1999.

Mother love

Eleven-year-old Sinta holds her baby Natalia at Taman Safari zoo in Indonesia’s East Java province.

REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas

Voodoo worshippers dance at the shore of Quidah beach during

the annual voodoo festival in Benin (western Africa) January 10, 2009.

REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye

Caution

Smoking causes wrinkles.

photo: Christina Hu/REU

Patterns XV

A child walks among candles as part of the "One Million Candles" event, a sign of solidarity with the infirm and poor, at the parliament square in Bern.

REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

Oxfam International distributes food in Zimbabwe.

There are so many worthy organizations and only so much money to give. Charity Navigator suggests that we pick a few for ongoing support. Mine favorites are: Doctors without Borders, Oxfam, and the UN food program.

Photograph: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP

Everyone carries within them a different image of God.

Everyone's image of God is different.

A friend, when she prays, imagines God as a mist or fog

blanketing a quiet landscape.

Love your hat, Aretha. It's retro, chic, stylish, sassy, and church lady glam!

I happened upon cygnets yesterday. At first I thought they were geese dusted with the morning's snow. Then I saw one swim alongside an adult, a hint of brown on its feathers and a muted orange beak. Nature's camouflage, I suppose.

Patterns XIV

Malaysian Muslims offer a special prayer for Palestinian victims of the Gaza conflict.

Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images

Epiphany

An Orthodox priest immerses a cross in Kapchagai reservoir, some 39 miles north of Almaty, January 19, 2009. Orthodox believers mark Epiphany on January 19 by immersing themselves in icy waters regardless of sub-zero temperatures.

Jesus...Epiphany...3 Wise Men...Dunk...Icy water...Jesus?

REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov (KAZAKHSTAN)

Just as you'll never understand
the mystery of life forming in a pregnant woman,
So you'll never understand
the mystery that is at work in all that God does.
(Eccles. 11:5)

photo: David Gray

Lightness of Being - Part Two

I am enjoying the lightness of being that comes from giving things away. It's fun to hunt through cupboards, the attic, and basement for at least one thing to give away each day. The local library accepts magazines for recycling. (Bye-bye stacks of Real Simple and Vanity Fair.) There's the Knowlton Thrift Shop and the rag bin at the Shell station. The squirrels whose acorn supply this year mysteriously disappeared got walnuts-in-the-shell from the pantry, and the deer have been feasting on pita bread from the freezer. Yesterday I left a book in my neighbor's mailbox. Today I plan to mail a ceramic hair iron to my great-niece in Cleveland. Then there's a sweater to give to my nephew's wife, a scarf to offer to the friend who fancies it...

PS: Check out Soles4Souls.org, a non-profit organization that recycles gently worn shoes, sandals and boots.

Patterns XIII

Tina! I love you!!!

(Tina begins her World Tour 2009 in Cologne at age 69.)

photo: Wolfgang Rattay

You've got to have friends

Parker got a teddy bear for Christmas.

Patterns XII

This temporary housing was built following the May 12 earthquake in China. The red lanterns hang in celebration of the Lunar New Year.

REUTERS/Jianan Yu

A cat is held during the CFA-Iams Cat Championship, in New York.

You Witness News/Sam Chadwick

Thank you, America

From one of my favorite bloggers, a minister in Canada http://theoldbill.typepad.com/the_old_bill/:

Thank you America. You have given us reason to believe in you again - many of us had forgotten we actually want to do that. We never really wanted to hate you but after 8 years of George Bush, we were drifting in that direction. We didn’t want to write you off, but you seemed somehow unable to withstand the pull of theocracy and idiocy, so we found ourselves doing just that. Last night you gave reason to believe in you once again, you reminded us of the best in you, your vision, your courage, your willingness to change. You gave us reason to believe in politics again, and, God knows, our own election here failed miserably in that regard. We’re sorry for our smugness, it was, we recognize now, uncalled for, unhelpful and just plain wrong.
Thank you for proving that just because something looks quite impossible, nothing ever is. The triumph of improbability over predictability shows us that God has not abandoned the people, not your people, not ours, for, in the end, we’re all Hers. Good on you. Welcome back,…we missed you.
No, wait, that’s wrong, it’s not back. Nothing about this is back. Thanks for taking the lead here, America, stepping out into a new land, a new time, a new hope. Thanks for giving us all a parable that’ll come to mind whenever the situation looks so bleak, so pernicious that we’re tempted to give up. Though inevitably “yes we can” will be so overused that it will become banal, a memory will persist, a memory of a time when in the most dire of circumstances a young man could defy common sense and stand up and lead in a chorus of ‘yes we can’. . . and sometimes, it really does happen. Thanks again. With best regards, from a repentant Canadian cynic, and all the rest of us.

Patterns XI

A Volkswagen Polo being retrieved by an automated palette from a storage tower near the company’s main factory in Wolfsburg.

John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

Friends support friends.

I'll scratch your back...

Monkeys enjoying the hot springs in a snow covered valley of central Japan.

photo: yuriko nakao

An indigent Chinese woman with her rosary.

photo: stringer for REUTERS

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (L) and his wife Svetlana attend an Orthodox Christmas mass at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow, January 6, 2009. Russia celebrates Christmas on January 7 according to the Julian calendar that is used by the country's Orthodox church.

What's funny about living in a society that worships perfection

is that imperfect people seem to be the ones having all the fun.

- India Knight

Patterns X

photo: Kai Pfaffenbach

12 Days of Christmas

A man dressed as one of the Three Kings hands out candies to children along a busy street during a celebration to mark the end of the Christmas season in Manila. Today, January 5, is the last of the 12 days of Christmas.

- John Javellana

Maggie thinks people need to play more. She's volunteered to demonstrate one of her favorite winter sports. Best part: it's free.

Turkish Delight

We saw "Doubt" last night and afterwards dined at the Istanbul Grill, Main Street, Stroudsburg. Family owned and operated: one son waits table; another runs food from the kitchen; dad cooks. From the Turkish tea to yogurt keebab, the food is otherworldly good (and within my range of WW points...Yay!) Treat yourself and friends. 11:00 AM-10PM, 7 days a week.

Lightness of Being

This entry almost didn't happen. Yesterday I confronted the demon denial by stepping on the scales. Within minutes I was enrolled in Weight Watchers online and registered for a twice weekly Body Blast class. Just got back from Wal-Mart (I know, the two shootings within the past few months, and the ongoing labor issues...but where else can you find groceries and an exercise mat under one roof?). Discovered that Progresso lite vegetable noodle soup is "O" WW points. Also learned it costs money to lose weight: WW $69; Body Blast class $115; turkey bacon, low fat mayo, fresh spinach, the mat, an outdoor thermometer so we don't have to keep sticking our heads out the door, and a bag of dog food for the local food pantry: $174.63. And let's not forget I don't like vegetables, never have. (Well, that's not completely true. I like all the wrong vegetables: corn, lima beans, etc. Let's just say I'm a carb addict.) The point is...how do low-income people, with limited accessibility to fresh fruits & veggies, lose weight? eat more healthfully? And, what's that got to do with my weight loss? Nothing. Just noticing, observing.

I can only maintain x disciplines at any given time. A girl has her limits. Which means, since I've now taken up two new ones, I'm at risk of heading to church without having brushed my teeth or exchanged my slippers for shoes. Trust me, it's happened. That's why I considered dropping this blog.

I'm whining.

It does feel good to have this particular monkey off my back, the gnawing awareness that I need to change my eating habits. (Wednesday's rhino photo was, you see, my subconscious at work.) But I wasn't prepared to hear that my 2-mile walk to the corner and back with the dogs entitles me to just two (2) extra food points a day.

My theme for 2009: lightness of being, regardless of how much I weigh.

photo: dylan martinez

Grant me the strength from day to day
To bear what burdens come my way.
Grant me throughout this bright New Year
More to endure and less to fear.
Help me live that I may be
From spite and petty malice free.

Let me not bitterly complain
When cherished hopes of mine prove vain,
Or spoil with deeds of hate and rage
Some fair tomorrow's spotless page.
Lord, as the days shall come and go
In courage let me stronger grow.

Lord, as the New Year dawns today
Help me to put my faults away.
Let me be big in little things;
Grant me the joy which friendship brings.
Keep me from selfishness and spite;
Let me be wise in what is right.

A happy New Year! Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye.
When this New Year in time shall end
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.

--Edgar A. Guest