Saturday, April 4, 2015 – The Easter Vigil

Saturday, April 4, 2015 – The Easter Vigil

It is Saturday. The Saturday before Easter Sunday.  The Saturday for the Easter Vigil.  I have not been to an Easter Vigil at a church in years.  I do not know if belief structures other than Catholic hold a vigil.

Here is what I recall when I did go. This is where you go to church on Saturday and wait for Jesus to arrive on Sunday. Evidently He arrives at sunrise because that is what time church bulletin says the first church service begins.

Believers go to the church and stay as long as they desire. The church is quiet and softly lit with just the usual lots of statues and candles. One prays and meditates, contemplates and conjugates, reflects and genuflects.  There is no service.  Just me and God.

As I said, it has been a long time since I went to a formal Easter vigil.  I do not know if Wi-Fi and ESPN-To-Go is available, but I think maybe with a new pizza eating pope and the Notre Dame women in the Final Four, it is entirely possible you can take your device for the Easter Vigil now.

But just because “I don’t go to church and I don’t cut my hair,” (Buffet, Jimmy – Pencil-Thin-Mustache) doesn’t mean I do not have a vigil.  I agree with Amy Farrah Fowler from the Big Bang Theory. “I don’t question the existence of a Deity, but I wonder about one that takes attendance on Sunday.”

Me and God have already had this talk, but I will share a few points with you.

Two years ago, I asked God to “make me a writer.” He answered my request with a “Here is some butt glue. Keep your butt in the chair and develop the talents I gave you, learn some new ones and trust the process.” Side bar: Please note that butt glue should not be confused with a product called Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. While similar sounding, one is a figure of speech and the other is a product found near the diaper rash products in the grocery store.

For my Ash Wednesday commitment in 2014, I said “During the Forty days of the Lenten season, I will write something every day, Monday through Friday.” I decided to share the writings on a blog I called Here’s What I’m Thinking.  My goals were to make a reader smile and think.

The link was shared with a chosen few. Some read it; some did not. First thing I learned was that Lent is not truly 40 calendar days.  But before I knew it, it was Easter Sunday, 2014 and I had to decide to continue or stop.

I trusted the process and decided to enlarge the circle of readers. Some began to read it daily.  People began to send texts and emails with “that was funny” or “I liked today.” Here is a special shout out to Cecil M. who would call laughing his petunia off over something I had written. I hope you are still laughing. Your laugher is so much encouragement. Much love and thank you for the many ideas!

To RL, KMY, KQ, Judy D, Kathy K. and others – especially my dear, sweet sister who made comments and shared the blog with others. All of you are God sent folks of encouragements. Bless you and a big thank you to all of you for reading, laughing and believing. Please know that your names have moved to a very prominent place of Acknowledgements when the book is published.  Those of you who did not read and are not reading, well, you are probably in the book somewhere. You are definitely in the blog somewhere.

Next thing I knew I was in a new place and Here’s What I’m Thinking began to take on a structure. College Sports, The Texas Aggies, Texas Education, and the ever-snarky, Texas Politics.

I called it Here’s What I’m Thinking. It is not necessarily what I believe in. If I wanted you to know what I believe in, I would have called it Here’s What I Believe In. It is supposed to make you smile, hopefully laugh and make you think.

The New Year arrived and soon it was time to think about Ash Wednesday, 2015.   It was time to stay small or go big. I had this thought “you have a doctorate in the design of learning environments, design one for yourself.” Wonder where that thought came from?

As with all projects or businesses there must be a plan.  I set forth into the dangerous world of social media with the following plan of action:

“If I know you, have known you, have just met you or will meet you in the future, I WILL write about you.  There is a statistical probability within one standard deviation that what I write about you will be positive. Are you willing to take the chance it is not, and not read Here’s What I’m Thinking?”

I learned Twitter – thank you KMY, BTA and Angela S for being test subjects.

I redesigned and upgraded the Here’s What I’m Thinking site. Thank you other bloggers for such good ideas and suggestions. Especially to Awkward Mamma Adventures for making me laugh -https://mammaflybox.wordpress.com/

I linked HWIT to Twitter. People retweeted it.

I studied Facebook. Thank you Nat and BJ.

On March 1, 2015, I prayed “Oh God, please project my identity” and joined Facebook and linked Here’s What I’m Thinking.

This brings us to today, the Saturday Easter Vigil. All projects must be evaluated. In forty (40) days readership went from about 30 followers to about 160 followers – using government and John Wax math.  Forty days. Interesting number, huh?

So draw your own conclusions. Were my prayers answers? Does what I write make you smile? Does it make you think, even though you may disagree? Did I do it alone or have Divine Intervention? Spiritual journeys are interesting, aren’t they?

Happy Easter.

PS – If my Great Nieces and Great Nephews (GNs) do not get on FB and start giving me some LIKES, you are out of the will.