Processing Life and Good Friday

There is lots to process during these early days. Tom and I've said to each other multiple times that this feels so normal and so odd all at the same time.

Yesterday was Good Friday and in my humble upbringing, the religious rhythms of the church did not feature greatly in my world. Tom is much more aware of these things than I am.

Anyway - we went over to our neighbor's house across the street yesterday evening (Good Friday). M and Z have been really good to us and for some reason they really like us. I haven't figured that out yet (= So we went before prayer call #4 for a supposedly short visit to say hello, pick up some things at their house that a friend had dropped off and to generally reconnect with them. We stayed until 10pm. It was very relaxed and easy to hang out. Partly because I was pretty tired, and partly because Layla was good entertainment for all of us.

Once the #4 prayer call happend, M and his sons got dressed and went to the little mosque down the street to pray and Z and her daughter went in the house to pray. It was all very natural and subtle so when Tom and I found ourselves sitting on camping/lawn chairs in the yard surrounded by their wonderful trees we were pretty relaxed and quiet. I have no idea where Layla is at this point, by the way.

As the prayer call is going on, Tom suddenly says "this is the time that Jesus died". Meaning, this is actually the time of day. So here I am in the Middle East, visually surrounded by desert scenes and arab people and I get an actual FEEL for what that time of day must have been like. Minus the drama of the day, of course. It was like walking onto the set of a play that wasn't actually being performed at the moment, but you know the story so well that just being on the set is powerful.

We just sat there kind of stunned. Or maybe it was just me being stunned, I need to ask Tom what he was thinking. So M and Z go off to pray and we heathen are sitting in the yard drinking milk tea with ginger. (This culture as more ways to prepare hot beverages than you can ever imagine. Those of you who know me, know I love a hot cup of something in my hand almost all the time(= ).

Can I just say that this baby moves SO much that I get distracted from the screen because I can see my stomach wobble? We were at someone's house yesterday sitting in the living room and he actually stopped mid-sentence because from across the room he could see the baby moving so much it distracted him visually. I don't remember Lj moving this much - it's going to be another big baby.

So I am trying to absorb our move, seeing our friends again, being back here again, and the meaning of Good Friday all at once. A little ovewhelming to say the least. Needless to say, in my limited capacity to really think or process at the moment, I will remember that Good Friday moment for the FEELING of it and for the tangible understand of some little part of that day.