Saturday, July 18, 2009

Quiet Day at Home

Today the boys and Mark went hiking up the side of a mountain. While they were away, I was invited to go the Obon Festival at the local Buddhist church. Obon is a Japanese celebration and is about remembering ones ancestors. Paper lanterns, incense, soup, snow cones, music and dancing are all apart of Obon. My father likes to go to Obon when one of his family members has recently passed away. Since my uncle recently passed my father wanted to go. When my boys were little we went to Obon in rememberance of my grandmother. It was a good cultural lesson. Since they were not able to go today, I did not feel like going myself. It was a hard decision not to go because I did not want to disappoint my family, but I felt like it was between them or the Lord.

I soaked up my alone time like a sponge. It felt so good to be surrounded with peace & quiet. I have been asking the Lord to speak to me and I received my In Touch Newsletter in my email. I posted the part of the message that meant the most to me on my Hopes & Dreams blog. Please check it out when you have a chance.

I also spent time cleaning. I was able to attend to things that have been on my "To Do" list for quite awhile. It felt good to get things accomplished. I also got to see Bird today. He still remembers me, but he is needing me much less. He has grown up. I miss him.

2 comments:

sherry said...

Seems as though we were on the "same page" yesterday, Becky. My daughter was working and my husband away on a weekend 4WD trip..I was supposed to attend an event but just couldn't bring myself to doing it. I remained home in the cool quiet and relished my time. It was needed. Very. Much.

Hugs,
jAne at tickleberry farm

Sue said...

Obon is a sticky one, isn't it? In my husband's home town, obon is in mid-August, so we pretty much tried to avoid being there at that time. The festival part is fine, but it can be difficult when faced with a visit to the grave or the family shrine (the butsudan that is kept in the home). I hope that there were no hard feelings. I will pray for your family today.