Hey Sanna Hosanna!

Welcome to Holy Week.

It was a busy week for Jesus. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, this was the week that he rode into Jerusalem to great fanfare on Palm Sunday like the new sheriff in town and stirred up all kinds of trouble. It was the the week he finally showed some real human emotion and angrily kicked the merchants out of the temple. It was the week he celebrated Passover with his disciples by sharing the meal that would forever be known as The Last Supper. It was the week he was betrayed by one of his band of twelve and tried as a criminal. It was the week he was killed by one of the Romans' most brutal and humiliating forms of execution: Crucifixion. It was the week that culminated in Easter Morning, the day of Jesus' Resurrection, the event that arguably gave birth to the Christian movement.

Or so the story goes. There are scholars, philosophers, and theologians who would argue on the events of that week. Some debate rather the Jesus we have come to believe was the one that actually lived, if he lived at all [click here, here, and here for more on those hot potatoes]. Yet whether or not the events [or Jesus himself] actually happened, no-one can deny the impact this story has had and continues to have on the world.

So as a Unity ministerial student, what do I think about Holy Week? I see this as a story of Hope. It reminds me that after a dark night of the soul there will be a new day dawning. It assures me that yes, even though there might be some times of excruciating pain and doubt and loneliness, they won't last forever. This is the miracle of Easter: Hope. Not the pray-for-a-miracle type of hoping, but the certainty that there will be new life after the storm.

Hey Sanna Hosanna!

Wakey Wakey!!

Out of the grey doldrums of winter I arise from the Hibernation of the Unmotivated. What's he waxing poetic about now you might ask. Simply this: it was a long hard winter; snowfall records were shattered across the country, and I was unmotivated to put fingers to keyboard with any sense of regularity. Two posts and three months ago I mentioned a new found sense of inner peace, and that peace lulled me into a state of blogging inactivity. Besides class assignments, all my reserve strength was devoted to staying warm. I was fortunate enough to be in Raleigh during the most brutal of the winter months but it was still cold and snowy, even beyond North Carolina expectations.

But like always, spring has returned with a vengeance. The sunny 60's and 70's has knocked my Seasonal Affective Disorder [SAD] down for the 8-count and I'm smiling again. A funny thing happens when I break out of SAD: visions of grandeur. I start thinking I can do it all...even the stuff I've been "getting around to" for the last five years. Like writing this book I've been trying to write for the past five years. I got a bit of a boost in December because of a class assignment that required a book idea, a table of contents, a first chapter. But I haven't touched it since.

Until now. There really are no coincidences. I bumped into an editor. Well she bumped into me but that's another story for another time, but there she was. We talked, and I realized that editors can be expensive. We talked some more. Turns out I have a skill she can take advantage of: music. Turns out she'd been lounging on the other side of the find-someone-to-push-me department. And now we found each other. The preliminary trade terms have been penned. Hands have been shaken. Who needs money? I guess you could make the case that we all do. But more importantly, some of us need someone to nudge [or perhaps shove violently] us into our greatness. And in some special cases, we connect with someone we can help as well.

So this is the year I write my book. I have declared it...so let it be. I have an editor who has an attitude that will keep me accountable. And I trust you my readers will also. I won't divulge any details about what I'm writing yet...what fun would that be? But trust me, I will have fun with this. The writer in me demands to be heard.

And there was much rejoicing...YAAAY!