I’m Marveling this Monday Morn at last night’s Marvelous Easter Supper.
Chef Robert made a scrumptious dinner of beautiful lamb steaks, chopped asparagus, gnocchi (potato dumplings) and a savory herb gremolata sauce.
I had not heard of gremolata before, but Google came to the rescue. “Gremolata is an herb condiment classically made from parsley, lemon zest and finely chopped garlic.”
Beyond Delicious!
Hot Cross Buns
TIB (Truth in Blogging): Shockingly, HR did not make this MARVEL-ous meal from scratch.
Do you know about these meal kits from The Fresh Market? We have tried half a dozen of them so far and loved them all.
We have also gotten to know the delightful butcher Elise at our Savannah Fresh Market. She puts the meal kits together. When Robert showed her the kit he chose for our Easter Supper, Elise took the kit from his hands and replaced it with larger lamb steaks. (Get to know your butcher!)
I’m marveling this rainy Georgia morning at the mystery, the illusive and changing allure of clouds.
Above the Savannah River near usHR and Columbus GA RiverwalkHigh Falls State Park, Jackson GAD.C. Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville FLNYC Amerson. river Park, Macon GAI can’t remember where.
And here’s a post HR did about clouds a while back …
Marveling this morning at my grandson Daniel‘s convincing performance as a REALLY messed-up teenager in his latest play, this time at the Tybee Arts Association Black Box Theater on Tybee Island near Savannah.
The play: Marvin’s Room.
Daniel’s character: Seventeen year-old Hank. (D is also seventeen.)
Here’s what Google’s AI says about Hank:
Whew!
Hank, onstage, with his psychiatrist on the right and his emotionally distant mother on the left:
As a grandfather, it was actually (and probably foolishly) somewhat difficult to see the normally exuberantly positive and usually smiling Daniel portraying such a severely damaged young man. (Hank doesn’t smile very much in the play.)
For a moment, I forgot what actors actually do. Act.
Daniel’s now been in over thirty plays, and his specialty seems to be the romantic lead in musical theatre (Prince Topher in Cinderella, Marius in Les Mis), Raoul in Phantom of the Opera.)
Sitting in the audience for Marvin’s Room, I kept having a bit of conflict between watching that mentally challenged CHARACTER I just met and denying to myself that the young ACTOR I knew so well could have ANY of Hank’s negative qualities.
But, uh oh. Maybe we haven’t burned down a house, but haven’t we all pushed a button or two to provoke a reaction from someone else?
Haven’t we all occasionally struggled to express our emotions openly?
Haven’t we all used sarcasm?
And haven’t we all felt (or acted) a little … crazy from time to time?!
The play ends (thankfully) on a positive note with Hank seemingly on his way to a better life.
And here’s Hank — I mean Daniel (!) — smiling his usual smile with HR and me after the performance.
Chatting and joking about his crazy character, we asked Daniel what he was going to be doing after this play ran its course.
“Oh, I’ll probably burn down my high school.”
Daniel, second from the right, chatting with some of his high school buddies who came to support him at the play’s second performance.
Marveling this Monday Morning at the simple and beautiful truth of poetry.
Small Kindnesses
By Danusha Laméris
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes, a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying. And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other. We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder, and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass. We have so little of each other, now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange. What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here, have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
Danusha Laméris’ insightful poem asks us to notice and cherish the many “small kindnesses” we exchange with strangers as we move through the world. Though quick, these moments have the potential to fulfill our shared need for compassion.
NealEnJoy 