quick update

Right now my pictures aren't working at all because the server that hosts them is down. But some haven't been working even when the server is up. It seems to be choking on so many pictures on a remote server--I get different ones every time I reload. So here are some links instead:
houseblessing picture
living room picture

I'm safely home but just beginning to catch my breath. The schedule of day camp for my kids here the next three weeks is all messed up. And I'm teaching a workshop tomorrow in which I am giving a demonstration lecture using laptops.

tough time

What hits me as we start to get ready to leave here tomorrow is the unchangingness of the place. The priest remarked on how the living room hasn't been changed significantly since my great-grandmother and great-grandfather lived here (except the art). My parents and my sisters are trying hard not to change anything. Last year I wrote on a stone "change is possible" and left it in my room. When I try to leave this place I feel like it is not.

houseblessing

We blessed the rooms we use most and rooms of significance from my childhood in all three houses. In the rooms where I have bad childhood memories we said the prayer:

"Let the mighty power of the Holy God be present in this place to banish from it every unclean spirit, to cleanse it from every residue of evil, and to make it a secure habitation for those who dwell in it; in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen."

The priest seemed to really understand what we were doing and prayed for past, present, and future inhabitants of the house.

My kids were uncertain about the idea beforehand, but when we blessed the rooms they use they joined us. It seemed to mean something to them.

It meant very much to me. The electricity went out sometime while we were doing the houseblessing and I joked it was that powerful (it came on again about half an hour later).

Then the sun came out and we went to the sandbars in Nantucket Sound.
Book of Common Prayer.

houses

Here are the two houses:

The big house was built in 1913 for my great grandfather. It is where I spend summers during my childhood.

The other house is an antique house my parents had moved to the property two years ago.

houses and nests

I talked to the local Episcopal priest today about doing a houseblessing, and he seemed very comfortable with what I want to do. So he will come to the house Thursday at 10 am to do it. I told him some of my friends would be praying for me then.

This morning was beautiful and after that meeting we went out in our boat and picnicked on Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.

Herring gulls were nesting right at the edge of the beach, most with three brown speckled eggs. No chicks yet. The weather was changing by the time we headed back and it was cold and wet until we got back into Stage Harbor.

storm

We had a big northeast storm yesterday, rain and high wind. We went out to see the ocean (I'll have to see if I can figure out a way to post pictures before I get home). But the second stop my daughter shut her finger in the car door badly, and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the emergency room. Nothing broken, but they drilled a hole in her nail to let the blood out.

Today is sunny but cool and very windy. We really want the wind to go down so we can go out in the boat. It is very hard to find our own routine here with my parents here (though in a different house) suggesting things. The last few years they haven't been here when we were here. They will go to New York Wednesday and Thursday so that should give an opportunity to do the houseblessing, if all goes well when I meet with the priest tomorrow.