Grateful

November 3, 2024 by Michelle Novak

~ Greetings Friends ~
During coffee hour after church service today, I shared a thoughtful few words with someone over the importance of being in the moment, and how fast time goes.

And lately too, I’ve just been thankful. For the sanctuary of my home. For healthy food. For the simple pleasure of a good book. For rest under warm blankets. For a thousand blessings.

Let us focus a moment on what is around us. And let us be grateful for all that is good in it.

Love yourself. Love each other. Be here now. Be thankful.

~ Stay Inspired ~

A Cherished Table

October 27, 2024 by Michelle Novak

Ghostly greetings ~ It’s almost time for Halloween!

I wish I could go trick-or-treating just one more time. Run like a rabbit between doorsteps and collect a pillowcase full of candies. Pour my treasures out on the floor in a heap and take inventory. And of course, any excuse to wear a costume…

I sat in the same spot at church as last week (read post here). I evidently did not learn my lesson. In another few weeks those rays will shift to another pew, I gather. Will I stick out if I wear my straw hat and beach glasses to service next week?

Over the last years, I’ve only put out one Christmas tree. They are beautiful, but the one had been a real tree and it was really more hassle than not. (And anyway, I’d rather every tree just stay planted in the ground).

Instead, I enjoy creating a bit of a celebration on my table. It makes me smile, and it makes me feel loved to see treats and cards spread out. It keeps the seasonal delight going and reminds me of those that I care about.

Don’t you love my vintage glass Pyrex piece? I need to get some cookies under there. Or better yet…a cupcake…a cupcake that will last approximately five minutes with me around.

I’ve been making greater efforts to stock my pantry. I generally don’t keep food in the cupboard – canned soups and such. But there is certainly value as the nights come earlier and chillier and you don’t want to run out when the fridge is low. And also, if you come down with those unexpected sniffles and can’t go out at all. What are your favorites to stock? I’m glad for a low sodium soup, and canned peaches for something sweet.

I’m heading out for an autumnal power walk in the fresh air. I’m going to listen to some new podcasts – get inspired and get that exercise!

Surround yourself with the love you find. Nurture your spirit. Be silly. Show your body kindness. And always…Stay Inspired!

October Wanderings

October 20, 2024 by Michelle Novak

~ Hello Dear Friends ~
It is a glorious October day! Did you have a good week? What was something nice that happened in it?

Here were my silly church wanderings this morning. I hope they make you smile!

It was such a lovely morning at church today. The choir was singing beautifully and the sun was twinkling in through the window to the right of me. It was just perfect…

I had one long pew all to myself. However, it soon seemed I’d picked just the spot when the sun began to beam directly down on me. I tried to sit still and not be shifty. I didn’t want to draw attention. But I became blinded and could hardly see the choir or the minister. I was squinting and my ring was making a sun cat on the pew ahead of me. The beam was so bright in my eyes, I wondered if it could laser off my glasses (like with a magnifying glass) and start a bible smoking? So quietly, I scooted myself a foot down the pew. But the sun followed me a few minutes later. I therefore gently moved another foot. Very soon, another. I was trying to be discreet. But I was traveling down the pew. Ultimately I did escape that very intense sun beam by moving back to my original spot, which the sun had now passed. If you’d seen me, you might have chuckled. I almost did. Musical chairs when God’s glory shines down!

As I listened to the incandescent singing in the choir, I observed two angel statues on either side of the dais. The angels appeared to be kneeling, praying. I adore those sweet statues.
As I considered them, I thought of angels in heaven, singing praises eternally. But then I thought of eternity, and how I wouldn’t be able to last one hour of singing and praising before I’d need a snack. After all, I’m just a fallible human. I can’t comprehend eternity. Nor existence without cookie breaks. I wondered if there were snacks in heaven? Certainly a thought to chide myself with. Why will my spirit need snacks!? It will be on to greater things for goodness’ sake!

After I got home from church, no closer to grasping eternity and being okay with that, I had some cookies.
Stay Inspired!

Holy Chapel of Paris: Sainte-Chapelle

November 18, 2016 by Michelle Novak

As most European cities are, Paris is filled with breathtaking churches; mind-boggling, Gothic-architecture behemoths built from stone. One such venerated place that I entered on a solitary wandering, was Sainte-Chapelle, meaning Holy Chapel…

From the outside, patterns can be made out in the window panels, but the beauty of the stained glass from within the chapel are yet to surprise you…

Religious figures and chiseled-out arches, grace its aging facade…

And if you look carefully enough, you’ll catch glimpses of the gargoyles that are peering down at you from above…

While the fleur-de-lis and castles that decorate the stone, are powerful markers of the history of this particular house of worship…

Markers that continue inside of the church, painted in gold upon the ancient red and blue pillars. I gasped at such a display of color, which I was not expecting…

Sainte-Chapelle began construction in the year 1242 and was completed in 1248, making this glorious building just about 774 years old! Folks who live abroad may not find this uncommon, but coming from the U.S., we consider a building or church that is just several hundred years old as being historically important. Therefore, I was absolutely in awe as I toed about this holy place built in the High-Middle Ages…

Once making a slow entrance into its absolutely magnificent chapel, I heard angels singing. A whole choir of them. This was all in my head of course, for the place was so reverently quiet that you could have heard a mouse sneeze…

It was a breathtaking moment. The sun glowing through the stained glass, the candlelight, the woodwork, the vaulted ceilings, the decorative alter…

All I can say is, oh heavens! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!…

And then I got closer to sneak a peek at the stories in the glasswork and my brain just broke. In the year 1248…how?! How did they do it? It’s…just…amazing…

Some who visited the church plunked down in reverie to view the scene. I wouldn’t doubt if folks stayed for hours to do so. The hundreds of stories and patterns in glass could keep anyone mesmerized. And to think, many if not most of these scenes in glass must have a meaning, some background to them. Whether a political rendering, or a story from the Bible, how many narratives the glass holds…

Sainte-Chapelle was built by Louis IX, King of France from 1226-1270. When he became a king, he was but 12 years old. He constructed this church in a courtyard where his palace stood in Paris, for the purpose of housing religious relics (including one crown of thorns alleged to be the very one Jesus wore at his crucifixion, and which is now housed in Notre Dame)…

At this time in the High Middle-Ages, there was both great population and economic growth in Europe (with a blossoming of urban life). It was a period posed after centuries of barbaric invasions, but set just before the Black Death (which potentially took up to 200 million European lives in the mid-1300’s, up to 60% of the peoples)…

Sainte-Chapelle housed just more than 30 religious relics acquired by Louis IX, items that would have caused absolute fervor in the devout. But even without the relics, if any common citizen could have gained access to such one chapel of a king (not likely), the view alone would have brought them to their knees. For that time period, the innards of a building like this would have been something hardly imaginable, a sight of unfathomable splendor…

Alas, as I finally walked down an ancient stair to leave the church and gain access once more to the rest of Paris, perhaps I passed the ghost of King Louis’s wife Margaret of Provence as she glided up in the opposite direction, heading into the chapel to say her prayers under the rainbows of the stained glass. Only my imagination of course, but how I wish I could catch but some small glimpses back in time while visiting such ancient places…

And as I walked back out into the light, the windows hardly giving away the colorful views that were within, I looked up to the gargoyles and said goodbye while angel song flitted up and away into the blue sky. What a place of beauty, is Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle!