Back online

Sorry about the lapse in posts - I was away in Wenatchee this weekend, and my computer at work also seems to have blocked Blogger.com. Stupid security rules.

Well, the Pope is finally at rest. I am relieved for him, but also saddened to bid farewell to our Church's charismatic leader. We agreed on very few doctrinal issues, yet I still love and respect him for his unwavering beliefs and for his steadfast pursuit of global peace. How many other leaders maintained strong diplomatic relationships with both President Bush and Fidel Castro? I heard today that Castro declared a week of mourning for the Pope - no small feat in a nation where citizens refused to disclose their religious affiliations when I talked with them.

I also had never seen pictures of him in his youth or from the earliest days of his papacy. He possessed such vitality, such tranquility; always, in every photo and film clip, he moves forward with the wisp of a serene smile on his face. He was contentment personified. I can't imagine facing the world with so much happiness -- I can't even get through a signel day without reverting to sarcasm and cynicism, and I'm just an entry-level administrator at a social services program. He will be missed greatly, and I just hope the next Pope continues the Church's dogged push for peace while acknowledging that it may be time for a change in the priesthood.

On the wedding front, a recent spate of rain in the Cascades has enabled the ceremony site to erupt in a riot of spring greens. New growth is pushing up through the damp, dark earth, and the place has an air of pregnant anticipation about it. At any moment, petals will start bursting out from their buds and our backdrop of wildflowers will come into bloom.

Now, if only the civil front were as invigorating as the physical world. It's real fun trying to convince people that our wedding is precisely that: ours. Not yours, not the property of the crazy distant relative, but mine and my man's. I'm suddenly understanding why people elope. :)