Tonight was the last night that our prayer stations will be up in the sanctuary. It’s been a busy week and today was no exception. The day started off early with a Sunrise service on the river bank in front of our house. You can see a picture of our little gathering on Randall’s site taken as the sun rose above the trees over the river.
Then everyone came in to our house for good strong coffee or tea and of course hot cross buns. I’m sure there must be a good reason why these particular buns are a traditional Easter treat but I can’t for the life of me remember why.
It was good to have a house full of friends this morning.
Then I had guests to get lunch ready for. This year I decided to skip some of our more traditional Easter fare for some really good bison steaks. My kids had scrubbed the potatoes the night before so there was very little hard work getting the meal together. We were thirteen for dinner but everyone brought something so we had more than enough. Eric made a couple of delicious pies that he had made – mango and pumpkin. He impressed his little sisters.
Everyone left fairly early this afternoon, leaving me with time to go for a walk along the river bank. Spring is slowly but surely on it’s way. The pussy willows are out. 
and there are more and more birds. Geese and ducks and I believe I saw a robin.
This afternoon as I walked, I could hear the ice breaking up. You only notice the power of the moving water when the ice meets an obstacle and it starts to pile up in heaps. Otherwise the water carries the ice along silently. It all looks so peaceful and then all hell breaks loose as it encounters an obstacle that tries to impeded it’s movement. Slabs of ice pile up with loud crashes as the slabs are impaled on each other and piled ever higher until a small mountain is formed in the middle of the river. There must be a sandbank there that has stopped the ice’s movement.
A huge slab of ice crashes it way past this obstacle. As it does, the side is sheared off and then the narrowed slab makes it’s way past and moves on with the force of the water till the next obstacle in met.
It was good for me to get out into the world that lies around me again. The walking path along the river is clear of ice and easier to negotiate than it was a couple of weeks ago. I seem to need this contact with the outdoors. I find it an easy place to talk to God – he’s just so much all around me and everywhere I am reminded of his power. At the same time I am so aware that I am a creature he loves.
But at the end of my walk I also made my way back to our prayer stations in our church sanctuary. I spent some time there just kind of wrapping things up, I guess. I was all alone, so I sat and looked out into the space where the people sit – my friends. And as I thought about where they had been sitting this morning, or missing from their usual spots, I was reminded of things they are praying about and things I needed to pray about them. And then there is this larger world out there past the walls of our church – so I just kept on going for awhile. It was good and I will regret tomorrow when I will have to go and take things down.
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