Dazzling holiday lights

When My Awesome Parents told us they were coming for New Year's, I bought us tickets to Dazzling Nights Pittsburgh at the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden. Dear Husband and I have regularly attended the holiday flower and light show at the Phipps Botanical Garden, but I wanted to do something different. A company comes in to set up forests of lights along the pathways. It was an impressive variety of strings, rings, flowers, rods, arches, Christmas trees, and other shapes. There were natural trees illuminated in neon lights, a fairy forest of dancing pinpoints of lights, and a cathedral of candles and stained-glass windows. Everything was even more magical because of a full moon overhead and snow on the ground, softening the landscape and crunching under foot. I just didn't anticipate that it was going to be 20 freaking degrees Fahrenheit. We made it 2/3 through the park before deciding are fingers were icicles, and we had seen enough. Inside was an exhibit of quilts by Black artists, but nothing in the gift shop enticed us enough to be purchased.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

SPC Women's Retreat: Never

Today I attended my first women's church retreat since I can remember. Sewickley Presbyterian Church has traditionally gone out to beautiful Ligonier, an hour's drive southeast of Pittsburgh, but this year they started alternating with a partial-day retreat on the church campus, and twice as many women were able to participate. I could have stayed home, working on the latest version of my book manuscript, which has been sitting in my email for more than a week. (I know you must be thinking, "I thought you finished the book, what more could there possibly be to do?" Well, after I submitted it  to the Press in March, a copyeditor make suggestions over the summer that I had to deal with, and I promise we're now on the final step, which is checking for errors and compiling an index.) Unfortunately, it meant I missed the local No Kings protests, but I've enjoyed looking through photos of crowds and signs online. Here's the sign that welcomed us.

Welcoming tableaux with encouraging words and lanterns to light our metaphorical paths. 

Despite our suburban setting, the retreat planners opted for a rustic-country-chic style, which just elevated the mood of the basement dining hall. They fed us a cold breakfast and soup for lunch. The theme was "Never," based on Tasha Layton's song "Never" which proclaims "Never forgotten / Never forsaken / Never abandoned."

Pastor Barb chose three Bible passages to illustrate these themes: the story of King David showing kindness to Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9-13) instead of killing him as the heir of a rival; Jesus' uttering the first line of Psalm 22 as synecdoche for "hope still has the last word"; and the story of Moses' birth (Exodus 2:1-10). This last one was very personal for Pastor Barb, who shared some of the toughest moments in the long journey to adopt two of her children from Haiti, and for two of the women at my table, who had both adopted children from Russia. They talked about the courage it takes to give a child up to another family being the opposite of abandonment.

We played some ice-breaker activities like "That's so me!" and "What's in your purse?"

After lunch, we walked over to the Faith House for "prayer activities that sometimes look like crafts":

• just sit in stillness and rest
• read some psalms and then write one
• pray for your family over a heart-shaped keychain to take home as a reminder
• sit on a comfy sofa and do breath prayer
• put on a backpack full of rocks and meditate on the burdens you're carrying, then remove one of the rocks, write a burden on it, and leave it at the foot of the cross
• take-a-verse-leave-a-verse (see below)
• write a magnetic poem-prayer
• meditate in front of a mirror about replacing negative self-talk with positive affirmations
• decorate a ceramic tile with your "sins" (in marker) and then symbolically "wash them away" with alcohol
• pray for the least and last in the world while looking at photos
• make a Bible bookmark and take one someone make
• pray for someone who has hurt you and then bury those resentments with a heart-shaped seed card that will hopefully grow into flowers
• color part of a "Never" poster while thinking about the women of faith who have impacted you

I left the verse, "Cast all your worries upon God, because God cares for you." ~1 Peter 5:7

I took home, "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you, he will never leave your nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." ~Deuteronomy 31:8

I brought my prayer beads (a craft from graduate school Bible study), seen here with two small devotional books for later: Chris Tiegreen's Moments of Hope: 40 Days of Encouragement for Women (Walk Thru the Bible) and Lysa Terkeurst's Is God Speaking to Me?

It was a good day of fellowship that I hope will bring me closer to my sisters in Christ.

25th High School Reunion

I hadn't attended a high school reunion in a quarter century until now. There was a 10-year event while I was either in Illinois or Germany, and the pandemic put the kibosh on anything in 2020, so when some classmates with whom I am still connected on Facebook started planning an event on a September weekend when I was miraculously free, I decided to pack my high school memory box, my yearbooks, and my graduation dress into my car and drive down from Pittsburgh. Being a pack rat turns out to come in handy for things like anniversaries and reunions. The space was lavishly decorated in red and black (school colors) and silver/gold (anniversary).

"With class, elegance, and sophistication, the Class of 2000 has no limitations!"

The planning committee put together gift bags that included, among other things, a bingo card to get us talking with each other. "Published author" was one of the squares!

Familiar faces in the slide show:

One of my classmates' dessert business catered the event in addition to what the restaurant provided.

Unfortunately, six of our classmates have died in the last 25 years.

 The only two things I regret were having to change in the restaurant bathroom and the fact that there were no name tags. I am even worse with names now than I was 25 years ago, but I recognized some faces, and many people recognized me, so in the end, I'm glad I went.

TSPGH: Randyland

Why did it take Dear Husband and me almost a decade to visit the iconic Randyland?

Thankfully dear friend C.M. came to visit, so we all went together.

Randyland is the brain child of Randy Gilson and his partner, Mac McDermott, Yinzers who started turning their house on the Northside and the lots, walls, and fences around it into a rainbow-hued wonderland of brightly painted found and re-purposed objects in 1995.

The only time this outdoor art installation has been closed was in 2019, when fans raised enough money to send the couple on their dream vacation, and in 2019, when Mac died of prostate cancer.

Entrance is free. Signs point toward local landmarks or say "welcome" in a variety of languages.

Randy(land) encourages visitors to take care of themselves, each other, and the world.

It was Mayor’s Award for Public Art in 2019.

RandyLand only "<3s hearts" / No Brains / Thinking / Only Stuff / Recycling / Finds / Repurpose SELF

There's a sandpit with toys and chairs if families want to come enjoy the outside.

Brains: Over Rated Not Reliable / Must be driven / Not Automatic / Beware Brains Break Very Often

Unsurprisingly, it's a popular destination for the selfie and Instagram set.

Here I was trying to capture the cacophony of crystal chandeliers on the pergola.

Pink flamingos. 'Nuff said.

Wall of mirrors.

Mannequins

We arrived at dusk on a Saturday evening and basically had the place to ourselves as the sun set. 

We stuffed some dollar bills in the "karma slot" and thanked Randy on our way out.

He was in his workshop, cooking up something else exuberant and playful.

That's so Pittsburgh.