Easter - grace grits and gardening

Give me Sugar

January 26, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

It starts with Halloween. We buy bags and bags of candy for the busloads and busloads of los niños who descend on our neighborhood. The tower of tempting treats on the dining room table grows taller with each trip to Target. We avoid the dining room during the month of October.

Eventually, during some late night television show, John and/or I will rip open a bag of baby Snickers and thus begins the first season of holiday grazing. From Great Pumpkin to Easter Beagle.

Today I bought my first (and hopefully only) bag of valentine candy. Sweet Tarts. Pure sugar which I eat until my teeth bleed and my tongue swells as though stricken by a severe sweetness allergy.

Squeezed between Valentine’s Day and Easter, we have a new holiday season. Girl Scout Cookie Season. Those 16 boxes I’ve ordered with arrive shortly after Valentine’s Day. How can you not order from cute little girl scouts? (and there are a flock of them in our hood)…

64 sleeps til Easter.

I feel ill.

talya

Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”
― Charles M. Schulz

Waiting for the Easter Bunny…

April 8, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

Happy Easter!

is he here yet?

low in the grave at Easter

April 6, 2012 By Talya Tate Boerner

Brinkley Chapel

The thing I remember most about Easter service when I was a kid at Brinkley Chapel was singing Low in the Grave. It was a horribly slow and depressing hymn, especially the way our small congregation sang it. Even the uplifting chorus of the song “up from the grave he arose!” sounded like something from Night of the Living Dead. I’m pretty sure at least that section should have been happy and full of joy, a celebration of the most important Christian holiday. And maybe expressed with a bit of pep? We sang it like Jesus the zombie clawed his way from the dank dark ground with his fingernails instead of miraculously arising from the tomb into the glorious gates of Heaven.
Although there were some great old hymns in the Baptist Hymnal, we may as well used them as booster seats. Brother Brown was stuck on the same old songs which we knew by heart and sang like funeral dirges.

Brinkley Youth Group 1967
Front: Karen, Monica, Staci, Jamie
Back: Lesa, Talya, Lynn

Momma was the pianist. To no avail, she sometimes tried to speed things up a bit, but sadly we only knew one speed. Snail. From the piano bench, her neck bobbed back and forth like a chicken as she tried to will everyone to pick up the pace. Sometimes she just played ahead of everyone. Singing was clearly not our strong suit.

Staci, Lesa, Talya, Jamie, Karen, Monica
Christmas Brinkley 1971

But those members of the church were strong and faithful. SaltOfTheEarth. This congregation of friends and family who surrounded us growing up, would give their eye teeth and right arms to help anyone. In the moment, spending time there and living life, you don’t realize the influence and importance of a place or people. I wish I could spend one more Easter service at Brinkley Chapel with that same congregation, but the building was sold and is no longer a church and many of the people are gone. I bet if we had one more chance to sing that song it would sound a little better to me now.