It is a beautiful and sunny Easter Sunday here in Providence, but I am sitting here quite homesick for the beautiful and sunny Easter festivities that are going on in Dallas. I listened to services from PHPC over the internet this morning, wishing I had flown home and could be sitting there listening to Blair and Elizabeth in person. My family is gathering for a large dinner at The Homestead right now, and for once it is truly cold enough for my dad to build a fire without having to turn the air conditioning on! My aunt Ann and cousins Emma and Hannah are in town, and my soon-to-be uncle Jim's children are also joining us for the first time, and I wish I could be spending this afternoon with them.

Listening to Dr Monie talk this morning about joy and rebirth, it struck me that I have often measured the time in my life by Easters (and my birthday, which often falls in or near Lent) instead of by the calendar year. It is the New Years Day of the religious world, and while I have not been a part of that world lately, somehow that part has stuck.

This has been a year of great highs and great lows for me. It saw a change in jobs, in cities, and the start of a challenging new graduate program. I watched my oldest friend walk down the aisle and start an exciting phase in her life, but also saw the end of my own long-term relationship. I sat with my friends as one of our own buried her father, and yet learned that night she was expecting her first child. I have a collection of friends, both new and old, who have been there for me in the last few months, and who have been inexplicably patient with me despite my repeated failures to return emails and phone calls. I have worked harder, slept less, and pushed myself more in the last seven months of my life than at any other time, but I have been rewarded with a confidence, an awareness, and a body of work I never thought I could achieve.

It has truly been an amazing year, both in the commonly intended meaning of the word, "astounding, astonishing, wonderful, great beyond expectation," but also the rarely used, darker connotations of "causing distraction, consternation, confusion, dismay; stupefying, terrifying, dreadful."

I don't think I can survive many years like this in a row, but I'm very thankful for the one I've had. :)

And, since I have been reminiscing about Easter and church today, I feel I should briefly resurrect (pun intented) an old habit of ending my blog entries like this:

Ruach, Namaste, Love,
Katy.