Sabbatical Diary: Week 1

Passion-tide and Easter Week

my parent’s backyard.

Nota bene: these are selections from my handwritten sabbatical diary, edited for clarity, and privacy.

Sabbatical Day 1: Good Friday

Already behind in this daily journal. Today, or rather, the today that was, was Good Friday. I wasn’t able to finish all my work Thursday evening before the Mass of the Lord’s Supper at my parish (one of our best liturgies each year!), so I carved away a couple hours here to make sure everything was done and inbox was at zero. I’ve deleted work apps from my phone, and my boss has signed me out of our system so I can’t even check in on the fly. I’ve closed my laptop shut and don’t expect to open it again till mid-April.¹ As usual the service at St —’s is solemn and grave and beautiful. This year I realized that they do not turn on the main church lights during the service, which is part of why it feels so solemn. The Ps and Ps were there. C did a great job in the long service, only having to be taken out once.

Father referenced St. John Henry Newman’s homily about the passion of Christ where he described in detail the torments of the passion, and then basically broke down in the pulpit. (Well, Victorian version of breaking down: his voice cracked, and overcome with emption, he stopped his sermon.) Must look it up.²

Bad at fasting; planned my meals poorly; dull headache, a little Dante, and early to bed.

Sabbatical Day 2: Holy Saturday

Went to the farmer’s market to see if there was any spring veg. Just beautiful scallions. Turkey sausage sandwich for breakfast; a true penance. Then to church to decorate for Easter. Would love to be able to decorate with flowers from the church yard, but almost everything has gone over (daffs) or not yet bloomed (hyacinth, etc). Got tulips at TJs and stole lilac from a bush by the gym for the vases on the pulpit. We were shorted flowers again this year, but K got backup at TJs and Lidl. My job next year. Went home and prepared food for tomorrow and read Dante and gardened and had a quiet evening. Mom and I finished our novel in time for me to bring a new one out to CA with me.

Sabbatical Day 3: Easter

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

A joyful surprise this morning: an egg hunt organized by B and her mom, who’s staying with us for the holiday. I was up early, as usual, so tried NOT to find all the eggs before M was up. Breakfast was special and then disastrous. Started with a quote from Pope Francis and a prayer asking for this food (bacon! sausage! pancakes! BM’s freshly harvested honey) to sustain us as we go forth and proclaim the joy of Christ’s resurrection. (I’m getting better at extemporaneous prayer after all these years living with protestants.) B’s mom told us about her conversion when she was a teenager. Meanwhile, the kitchen kept getting hotter and hotter and we realized the oven was still on! We kept trying to turn it off but the knob would not budge. Everything felt flammable and precarious and greasy and I think we were all panicking about getting to our respective services and Easter engagements. We turned off the gas of the house. Then realized the electric starter was still on…had to climb over the greasy top of the fiery hot stove to unplug it. Eventually everything was properly turned off, cooling down, dresses were not harmed by either fire or sticky grease (must clean the sides of the stove better in future), and we went to services only slightly worried that they house would explode. We are without gas for the next few days.

Mass was a joy. Trumpet, of course. I could barely sing Jesus Christ is Risen Today; I could barely contain my joy. Fr C gave a lovely homily of invitation asking us to remember our Baptismal promises and bring Christ out to the world. My dress was (for once) pressed. It started to rain as we left the church.

Then Easter Lunch at the P’s with all the kids and all the friends. I brought asparagus with lemon butter vinaigrette³ and blanched peas with scallions, herbs, and feta. I also brought a fruit platter which was so fun for everyone. Highlights were: photo with my two godchildren (different families) instigated by my godson himself! Lunch in the dining room, adults only, chatting about everything under the sun. And, later, watching the end of The Empire Strikes Back with the kids:

Me, as the duel between Darth Vader and Luke starts to get intense: Guys, has JB [age 4] seen this already?

M, barely looking at us: oh yeah, loads of times.

two minutes later

JB to me with a whimper in his voice, but his eyes glued to the screen: Can we stop this now?

Me, putting my arm around him: It’s going to be ok. I’m right here.

two minutes later:

JB cheers excitedly at the destruction of the Death Star.

The adults were wondering where I disappeared to. Oh, just watching Star Wars with the kids. (Same kids told me to watch the rest of Star Wars on my flight tomorrow.)

When I got home BM was over and excitedly looking for more easter eggs. We hosted the S’s for dessert on the patio, and JW was his normal bouncy self. Still have hot water in the house (yay!), and remembered the grill has a gas ring on it for tomorrow’s eggs.

Sabbatical Day 4: Easter Monday

Trying to get to mass as many days of this sabbatical as I can. Early to St. Rs, which did a beautiful job decorating with only lilies and blue hydrangea.⁴ Of course I haven’t packed, except for pile of books (5). Mad rush to the airport … which, for the first time in almost 20 years of living in DC, turned out to be the wrong airport. I mapped it on my phone, ran through DCA, cut the taxi line, told the cabbie to book it (safely), prayed a rosary, cut to the front of the TSA line at Dulles, sprinted (ha!) to the gate, and got there just as they were starting to close the door. 55 minutes from DCA’s TSA agent to airplane door at Dulles (which was in the very last gate of the farthest terminal). They were very sweet to me, and cheered and laughed when I said I went to the wrong airport. It took 30 minutes on the plane for my heart to stop racing. Note to self, always bring inhaler on carryon. (I did.) Watched Star Wars: a New Hope and the first half of Empire, and the kids were thrilled when I texted that I took their advice. Metro and ferry and finally my parent’s house. Sabbatical Burger Count: 1

Sabbatical Day 5: Easter Tuesday

Went to neighboring town for mass because there’s a good bakery there. Alas, the bakery is closed on Tuesdays! Still the drive was nice: the hills are a soft springy green and the air was so fresh. Mom’s caseworker is being promoted so it was his last visit to them after almost 3 years. Note to all those with aging parents: your case worker can be your best ally. Honor them, treat them with respect, cherish them, ask them every question you can think of. He’s taken amazing care of her, and we’re sad to see him go, but glad for his promotion. Started new novel with mom; already really liking it. Lamb gnocchi in a cream sauce for dinner; would have preferred tomato, but it was good, and I didn’t have to cook. Ted Lasso season 2, 1-2. Early bed. Behind on Dante.

Sabbatical Day 6: Easter Wednesday

Mass at the local parish. There’s a young man there who has a severe mental disability and it is so lovely to see the way he is known and loved by the whole community. For example: he really wants to be helpful, so he brings hymnals to everyone in the rows around him. They gladly take them and bow their heads to him in thanks even though we don’t use them on weekdays. Then he goes and sits quietly by his dad. He’s at least a foot taller than his dad, and considerably bigger, but is as gentle as a lamb. I’m sure it’s not easy — I don’t even know what his condition is so how could I know what burdens they carry — but as I watched the man steadily pray, despite the distractions of his son, and then watched how that steadiness stilled the son himself down, I thought about how like a distracted child I am when it comes to God. I busy myself with this and that and the other thing, and those things are good in themselves, but are they the things I ought to be doing? And God just keeps steadily on, loving and forgiving and being merciful and being there, beside me. This is the image I want to keep in mind every day of this sabbatical, I think. This young man, good hearted, developmentally challenged, and his steady, kind father.

Speaking of busyness and things to do: I stopped at the nursery and bought heavy duty clippers for pruning the lemon tree and long sleeved gloves for the same (did you know lemons have 3 inch thorns?). The lemon tree is in a bad way: it has white fly and probably scale and definitely black sooty fungus. It is overcrowded and overgrown and I’m not sure I can make a good job of it, but I’m going to try. It has so many lemons to harvest. I did the orange tree and the lime and the big avocado first, plus trimmed a big limb of the fig tree that’s blocking mom’s favorite rose bushes. Next time I’m home, I’m getting a ladder and trimming some of the neighbor’s tree that hangs over the whole garden shading out the avocado and fig. I started on the lemon, but was too tired and had to cook dinner. Maple-mustard glazed pork tenderloin, smashed potatoes, salad with chives. Ted Lasso: Christmas and Rainbow, my two favorite episodes.

Sabbatical Day 7: Easter Thursday

Mass again, and coffee at the local coffee shop. Took mom to get her ears cleaned at urgent care. The PA kept asking again and again: do you use Qtips? And we kept saying no. It got quite comical. PA: are you sure there isn’t a piece of cotton stuck in there? Mom: my pediatrician told me to never put anything in my ears smaller than an elbow. PA: (not laughing) but there’s got to be a piece of cotton in there. Me: There isn’t. We don’t even own Qtips. Afterwards: In-n-Out and the local cookie place (not crumbl) as a treat. Mom very very tired. She went straight to bed and I went outside to start on the lemon tree.

Bought 1500 ladybugs to help tackle the white fly from the county next door. They arrived while we were out. Said to Mom and Dad, “I got you 1500 new pets” and Dad said: “that’s great, as long as I don’t have to clean the litter box.” Released in the evening. I pruned the lemon tree removing almost every branch lower than my shoulders. Then I thinned the head-height branches considerably, after harvesting all the fruit. I don’t think it looks good and got scared of taking more away, because you’re not really supposed to remove more than 1/3rd of the tree at a time, but I thinned the top as best as I could, because it is truly overgrown. Note for next visit: figure out what kind of dogwood they have, and find out if that can be trimmed down so that it’s bushy and flowers under the window instead of above. Dinner was perfectly cooked⁵ salmon, scallions, and fennel, with salad and mom’s Easter basket Dubai chocolate bars for dessert. I love milk chocolate, but those bars really should be made out of dark. Washed the lemons as we watched Ted Lasso. I am overtired / of the great harvest I myself once desired.⁶ Sabbatical Burger Count: 2

1. it’s April 14th when I’m typing this up.

2. I can’t corroborate this account with the research I did quickly, but I think this is the particular sermon referenced.

3. NB: add olive oil next time too to make the lemon butter more stable as a vinaigrette

4. I guess I’m not someone who not only notices what church flowers look like, but judges them too.

5. Heat oven to 400 convection, or 425 regular.

Get baking dish out. Put in bottom of baking dish: sliced fennel bulb, 1 bunch scallions (sliced on diagonal), 2 tablespoons butter, cut into little chucks, drizzle of olive oil, juice of half a lemon (or a couple tbls white wine) and salt. Mix all these together and arrange in a flat layer. Throw in the oven to start to cook while it’s pre-heating.

Meanwhile, pat dry both sides of the salmon fillets with a paper towel, and season generously with salt.

When the oven is pre-heated, remove the baking dish, and make a little room amongst the veg to nestle the salmon fillets. Return to the oven for ~18 minutes. I checked it at 14 minutes, and knew it needed a bit more. The meat thermometer should read around 120°-130° at the thickest part of the salmon, and the salmon should be mostly opaque.

6. After Apple Picking, by Robert Frost