Parallel lives

Writing this in the first minutes of Easter morning, I feel I've been living two parallel lives these past few days - the life of the events of that first Easter, and the life I usually live here in Dunoon, with the sea and the sun and the rain. So this morning began with the awareness that soon I had to be in church changing things in this Saturday of hiatus, the way that Holy Saturday always is. This involved meeting Di, as well as the people who usually do the more normal forms of church decoration, to use the moss and small trees from the Gethsemane alar to create the Easter Garden under the main altar. The collage extra has two photos of that activity - though the first one shows our rector, David, up a ladder to ensure that the two slightly camp angels have little lights up beside them in the window.  Some of the moss went to a floral decoration in the porch; the rest was chucked down the bank where all the discarded flowers end up. (It's all right - no-one can see them...)

That done, it was home for a bite of lunch before a short walk at the Ardyne, which provided several moments of startling beauty in the sunshine. There was a strong southerly wind, but the sun was brilliant, and the other two collage photos are from that walk. As we approached our car we met our long-time neighbours - one of whom originally told us our house was for sale, all of 49 years ago - and chatted to their daughter, slightly older than my older son, whom we've not seen since before Covid. By then I was fretting about the next part of the day, so it was home to cook and consume an early dinner and relax ...

Only briefly. By 7.30 we were off out again, this time to the Easter Vigil service, complete with the lighting of the New Fire in the grounds and the processing into the dark church of the Paschal Candle, from which all our own candles were lit. I had to put mine out again pretty swiftly, as it was time to sing the Exultet, which I've done every year in the past 18 or so years other than during lockdown. (I like the translation I use better than the one in the recording, but ...). Then all the lights went on, Himself played a great fanfare on the organ, we sang the Gloria... we were asperged with water from the font, we renewed baptismal vows, we sang again, had communion ... All this with a dozen people, which felt just the right number.

And then we all gathered in the narthex and drank non-alcoholic fizz (the church isn't actually near where any of us lives) and were all quite high on the drama and the symbolism ... and then went home. 

And now it's Easter. One more service to go - but in the meantime Happy Easter to you!