It’s ten PM and I am wishing I could go back and start today again.  Lazy Sundays are hands down my favorite day of the week, and I fight very hard to maintain them.  I only wish I could get my husband to do the same!  Of course, it is easier said then done.  Saying no to Sunday brunch is always a tough one, and doing what is in my power to not rehearse for a play or wait tables is another.  My friends and colleagues have grown to respect my Sabbath-keeping, and I have ended many a hard week with a stolen-away day to worship and reflect and for that I am incredibly grateful.  I believe deeply that we were created to have one day of rest per week, as we were meant to breathe in and out or to sleep and wake!

I didn’t get to have many Sunday’s this past May and June.  In fact, I believe I only had two!  No wonder I felt lost!  Today, as I look back over these busy busy past few months, I finally have the time to be thankful for them.  I listened to a sermon (click here!)  today about how Jesus taught us to pray, and he begins purposefully with “hallowed be thy name.”  Apparently to hallow means to acknowledge or render.  To praise.  My pastor spoke about how we must begin there, and only after we have acknowledged God’s greatness can we ask for what we need or ask forgiveness for our mistakes.  He said with acknowledgment comes peace and  awe and strength, and that that carries over.  It carries over into the next part, making it easier to ask for forgiveness or ask for our daily bread.

I found this message especially moving today, as I look backwards.   I co-produced, co-created and acted in a play (click here!) this past week, and my family came to see.  My friends from work came to see.  I met some amazing new friends during the production.  I went to Charleston to visit my best friends family.  I obsessed about money.  I did a couple of short plays in May and saw two friends get married.  I waited on so so many tables.  I served my husband and he served me.  I tried to listen to him.  I wrote my grandmother a letter but missed her family reunion.  I worried and obsessed and belittled, I failed and cried.  I laughed and smiled and teased and slept.  I watered my orchids.

Im gonna try to begin my July by acknowledging.  To begin each prayer that way.  Each day.  To begin each week with it.  Or I will hallow.  Or I will say hallowed be….  You know what I mean.  🙂

Load-in: That Poor Dream at the New Ohio’s Ice Factory Festival. Great Expectations, set on a Metro-North Train Car.

Moti and I at Fort Sumpter in Charleston!

Homemade crushed Mint Lemonade. Take fresh mint and muddle with 1 tablespoon sugar in the bottom of a pitcher. 1 part lemon juice. 1 part sugar. 1 part water (heat water on stove top, add sugar to make simple syrup. Let sugar dissolve.) Add lemon juice and simple syrup to pitcher with crushed ice and add cold water! (3-4 cups, or to taste!) Or you can blend and food process it all to make a slushie!