Falling Blossoms on Burnside Street

Bright pink fallen blossoms around my feet while walking around SE Burnside Street in Portland - I snapped some shots to capture this fleeting window of time we are leaving behind - when the blossoms begin to fall to make way for the unfurling of green leaves. This is where you might be finding yourself right now - you've seen too many things around you fall and fall apart.

But you're forgetting about the unfurling - the new beginning that awaits you.  If your plans, or your hopes, or your art has seemed like these blossoms - trampled underfoot on a busy sidewalk - maybe that was just a way to make space in your life for new and better things to come. 

Today is Orthodox Christian Easter - also known as Pascha - the Hebrew word for Passover. Orthodox Christianity waits for the Jewish Passover each year before we celebrate the resurrection.  And I am always so in need of a new beginning by this time of the year - for a resurrection in my faith, and in my hope. Whenever I watch the falling of things - the falling apart of things - I need to remember that this is not an end in itself. This is a way of making room for things to come.



(c) 2013 writing and photos by Chloe - all rights reserved

The Colors of Easter (Week 44 of Fireflies at Dusk: A 52-Week Project)

Memories of my Gen X growing-up years were full of pastel colors along with splashes of some vivid pink, yellow, and green, too.    

This week I put the final touches on surprises for my little one who will be getting a few fun things like finger puppets in her baskets this year...

My growing-up Gen X years were Protestant, so I keep all of that near my heart. Some of the best spiritual direction I've gotten has been at Catholic monasteries. And for now, we go to Orthodox liturgy. Orthodox Easter is also known as Pascha.  The colors I see at Pascha are all the bright happy colors above, as well as all the rich colors below...

Orthodox Christians dye their eggs red at Pascha.

An Orthodox friend of mine gave me this card a few years back and I  set it out every Pascha.
It's called the "Russian Folk Family Pascha Feast"- a sweet little depiction of a
Russian Orthodox family maybe in the 1800s or early 1900s. The artist is Nadja Glazunova.

As the Fireflies at Dusk Project has gone on, much of it has turned out to be about color.  The project is about revisiting good memories and since memories are often visual - they often hold specific colors. The project has also been about creating new good memories. Through our windows we see the blooming flowers in their brightness with all the colors of spring. Inside we have decorated with a mixture of the beauty of the pastel colors, and the richness of the reds, deep blues and oranges above. It all comes together to create an amazing color palette all around us. This time of year holds both the richness of color and that which makes seeing color possible - God's light.








(c) 2012 by Chloe