Sometimes all I ask for is a little friendship. Most of the time, not even that much is returned. It is a pretty sad society that downplays the importance of friendships, and makes everyone out to be only an island. That is something I've never understood.

We had a busy day today, and did a lot of running around, shopping, and errands. By the time we were on the last leg of our journey, we stopped home briefly to get some things, and then take off again for an appointment. The ten minutes the car was sitting there in the driveway showed us as we backed out that something was leaking, right in the middle of the car. We went downtown, parked the car on the street, and went into City Hall to take care of some paperwork. An hour later, we came out to the car, and there in the gutter was a lot of red fluid that had come from our car. We quickly headed for our favorite repair shop, and I phoned them while on the way there so they would know ahead of time we were coming in. When our mechanic (co-owner of the shop) dropped us at home, we showed him the puddle of fluid on our driveway, and he immediately confirmed what I had suspected, the transmission had a severe leak. The car will be repaired. It was just in about three weeks ago ($3800) for a rebuild of the transmission, so something like a gasket needs to be replaced. I sure hope it is simple, because we did not need this a few weeks before Christmas to happen. At least we have another car to rely on. It is a good thing hubby is retired, because we can get by on one car now, at least for a short while.

One of my favorite photos of the pond, late summer, 2009.

I have been away from DL services for two weeks due to an illness, so I was anxious to get back to Church and find out what happened on our offer, and proposed bank loan, for a new Church property, since we now holding services in an office/commercial building. We are just a mission that is rapidly growing, and need more space desperately. The deal almost fell through once already. Now, we have secured the promise of a small loan, and multiple offers of private loans through our parish, etc. We seem to have an "all go" this time around, and we pray nothing goes wrong with it again.

The new Church building is an older church building property, but looks well maintained. Fortunately, one of our members deals in commercial property real estate, and he will be looking for everything we must consider. We are so grateful for this opportunity to grow our parish, and hope that it continues to grow in the future. With this new property, it will enable us to do that with plenty of space.

Holy Theotokos, please pray to God for us and this new property.

Thanksgiving has really caught on since the Pilgrims gave thanks for their survival in a new land. It is a time to give thanks, eat our fill of fattening foods, and enjoy ourselves. However, coming into Orthodoxy we have the Advent Fast at this time, and we cannot indulge in many foods. Veggies, fruit, water, and sometimes fish are on the list to eat, and I love salads. It can be healthy if we stay away from sweets, but I'm on a diet, and have also eliminated sweets from my fasting, which is allowed at this time. At my age I see no reason to indulge in fattening foods, and getting it off again is a struggle, if not downright impossible. Young people usually do not have the problems us older folks do. That is okay. But I speak only for myself, and hopefully will find a healthier Thanksgiving this year. The same thing will be for Christmas, and our Nativity is celebrated January 6th, but the rest of the family celebrates the New Calendar one, which is fine. Let them. I'm just along for the ride, and no more self-indulgent and foolish eating habits for me, for my health cannot handle it any longer. All good things must come to an end, and I'm not upset nor bitter. It is just the reality that old age can really mess up indulging in things, but so what? We have our go at it enough times, and so it ceases. The only problem comes in when the rest of the family thinks I should just drop the fasting and dieting, and join them. Then it becomes a problem. All I ask for is a little respect, and understanding.

I ordered a couple of books about the Robert E. Lee family about a month ago. It is very informative about how people lived during and after the Civil War. We cannot begin to imagine it. Great reading, though.

This is what our pond garden looked like this year, summer 2009.



and left side of it.

This is the main waterfall in our pond.

Begonias in the front, and dianthus in the back.

Remembering my roses, which do not look this great now, simply because the redwood trees put them in deep shade, now. Plus, the neighbor overwaters them on the other side, which comes over to our side, since it is a little downhill.

One of my favorite photos of Simon. I was outside looking at my garden with my camera, and I looked up to see that he was watching my every move.

The Orthodox Church is growing in the Americas. People are coming to Orthodoxy in great numbers in Americas because they perceive it as the True Faith, the Church that was formed when Christ handed it to the Apostles, and the same Church that came into being on the Day of Pentecost.

Recently, there has been controversy whether or not there should become the American Orthodox Church for the Americas. This site is in support of that idea, with some thoughts on how this could come about. When a visitor comes to visit a Russian Orthodox Church, or an Antiochian Orthodox Church, or a Serbian Orthodox Church, or a Greek Orthodox Church, or a Syrian Orthodox (plus others), they are actually seeing the same one. They differ in culture without changing the essence of the faith. The reason they have all of these names is the settlers that came to America established their Churches from the ones that were in Europe or the Middle East. The name refers of the place they are from, and not that they are different Churches. It is true some of these Churches speak the languages of the country they come from. The Liturgy is the same with the exception of a few traditions within each country, and they are in Communion with each other. The people that attend these Churches are more comfortable hearing the Liturgy in the language of their homeland. Now that the generations that followed them into the Orthodox Church in the Americas want the Liturgy in the American English language, or Canadian languages, or South American languages, and to be considered part of the Orthodox Communion. We do not always identify with the various Russian, Serbian, Greek, etc., because our citizens in America are sometimes from other lands by heritage. Even so, our generations that were born here are not identifying with any of these ethnic Churches. While I can see the reason for these ethnically identifying Churches at the beginning, and now is the time to open up the Orthodox Church to all Americans, and call it what it truly is, The American Orthodox Church.

The one Orthodox Church in America that is best at handling languages for America, so far, seems to be the Antiochian Orthodox Church. While a few things are spoken in Arabic, Greek, or Russian, on special occasions, by far the Antiochian Orthodox seems the most accommodating to the American English speakers. Personally, I am a member of an Antiochian Orthodox Church here, and was Chrismated there on March 31, 2007. The only reason I attended this parish over all the others was because of the lack of a language barrier. That is not to say the Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, or Serbian Orthodox do not do ANY services in English, but much of their liturgy usually is in their homeland language, with some English placed here and there. Some Greek Orthodox Churches are experiencing a generational thing so that subsequent children, grandchildren, etc. raised in America preferred English services in the United States. These Church leaders usually are trying to accommodate both, which is a good thing.

The idea of an American Orthodox Church, or the Orthodox Church in the Americas is to keep the general population from being confused of what Orthodox Churches are, and to let them be more comfortable about visiting our parishes. I submit that we could make the signs on the Church say something like, "American Orthodox Church," and in smaller letters, "Russian Language Services," or "Serbian Language Services" (for example) underneath to help recent immigrants find the Church of their homeland. Also, should be listed times of the services, whether in English or another language.

This is not about schism, but unifying all Orthodox Churches into one, autocephalus Church group in America. This Web site is not in affliation with any other "Orthodox" sites, nor groups. This is only about one person's views on the joining together of True Orthodoxy under the American umbrella of parishes. May God be with us.

Our English Rose bush. It is a Jackson & Perkins called Abraham Darby.

One of my favorite rose bushes.

Kind of a moody picture, but it's the season thing, too. This was taken when it was first completed, January 2008.

Our little budding plants around the fish pond early last year.