Post Resurrection Haze

I took two naps today. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Just because I could. And yes, needed it.

I have a clergy colleague who calls me faithfully every Easter Monday morning and says, "Alleluia, He is Risen! And I am dead."

I suspect all church types are moving through a post-resurrection haze today. I don't know too many people who don't have responsibilities at home besides all the church-related activities that need to be done.

We had a wonderful Easter dinner. While we waited for dinner to finish cooking, we feasted on a warm spinach, artichoke and cheese dip which was absolutely yummy.

Ms. Conroy outdid herself with a magnificent Prime Rib Roast she got at a fantastic sale price at our local Shop Rite. I made 'smashed' new red potatoes with garlic and also found some amazing asparagus to serve with it.

The night before, while I was dipping strawberries in chocolate for our Easter Vigil champagne and chocolate strawberry reception, I had poached Bartlett pears in a cranberry-apple juice, white wine, cinnamon sticks and cloves and kept them overnight in the liquid. I served them with a wonderful raspberry wine sauce for dessert.

And lo, it was very good.

I did clean up the kitchen today, did some laundry, removed the covers to the deck furniture, washed them and put them away until the late Fall with a little prayer to the cosmos to please be kinder to us this Spring and Summer than the Winter from which we have just been delivered.

I ran a few errands, and did some catch-up reading around the web - we have some very fine preachers in The Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion - and Monday morning quarterbacking, taking notes on how to fine tune things even more efficiently for next year.

I did have a laugh at myself as I remembered moving the Paschal Candle in front of the Baptismal Font on Holy Saturday and saying, "Hmm . . . I love the theology, but what about the aesthetics?"

I've either gone right over the edge of "Episcopal-meet-right-and-proper", or I've become a gay man.

I'm especially grateful to two of our choir members, Joanna and Darlene, for providing a beautiful musical meditation on Good Friday - two selections from Pergolesi: "Stabat mater dolorosa" and "O quam tristis et afflicta" - which fed me and sustained me through the rest of the Truduum and even to today.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful Holy Week and Easter.

I hope it was for you, as well.

Alleluia, He is Risen! And I am recovering.