A FESTIVAL WORTH CELEBRATING

Months ago, I made a commitment to help raise funds for and participate in a “first” event, “Heaven, Hope & Hurricanes,” a spring gala featuring our good friends Brenda DeKeyzer Lowry and Joshua “Bubba” Murrell that will take place in Sewanee, TN, my second home. It’s sponsored by the Advisory Board and Sisters at the Convent of St. Mary, and as I’m both a board member and an Associate of the Order of St. Mary, I’m firmly committed. At the time I agreed to the Sewanee event, I had no idea I’d be invited to participate in a reading at another “first” event, The Dave Robicheaux Literary Festival named for James Lee Burke’s famous fictional character who has made places like New Iberia’s Main Street and Victor’s Café familiar to readers of books in the mystery genre. The festival will take place during the same week-end as the Sewanee event. I had to decline the second invite with big regrets because The Literary Festival is going to be one of New Iberia, Louisiana’s most notable events this year.

Storytellers from Iberia Parish and from throughout Louisiana will participate in a literary round-up April 8-10; will join in festivities like “Bayou City Jam,” a cochon de lait at The Shadows-on-the-Teche; a Neon Rain 5K Run; a ULL Academic Symposium of panel discussions; and an authors/publishers roundtable. The Iberia Performing Arts League will perform sketches based on a Dave Robicheaux novel and other one-act plays. And, of course, there’ll be music and food from a food truck festival in Bouligny Plaza. Saturday evening “Black Cherry Blues and Boudin” will be featured, and the Grand Theater will show In The Electric Mist for the occasion. There’ll also be a bouree tournament for Cajun card players. The only way in which I can participate is by having a table at the book fair sponsored by Books Along the Teche, manned by my good friend, Janet Faulk-Gonzales and featuring several of Janet’s, Victoria Sullivan’s and my own titles, some of which are based in New Iberia.  Look for the table in front of the Chamber of Commerce office!

We’ve had lots of festivals in New Iberia, but this event seems to include everything that reflects the joie de vivre of Cajun country, and I’m one more sad puppy because I’ll miss the entire week-end of festivities. I hope one of my friends will save a commemorative poster created by Trent Oubre and will send it to me.

I’ll be thinking about this celebration while passing a good time on The Mountain and wishing I could be in two places at one time!

  

HEAVEN, HOPE, AND HURRICANES

Chapel of Community of St. Mary

This rainy day in south Louisiana, I read that the sun is shining on my second home in Sewanee, Tennessee, and my thoughts center on an event that will take place there soon after we arrive for the spring and summer season. At Sewanee, we worship in a chapel of the Community of St. Mary, a community that has been a presence on The Mountain for over a century. We're also on the Advisory Board of this Community and associates of the Order of St. Mary, and I often preach and “deacon” at services held in St. Mary’s chapel. This year, the Sisters, Board, Associates, students, and friends are hosting a spring gala entitled “Heaven, Hope, and Hurricanes” in support of an Organic Prayer Internship Program that includes young men and women who have helped expand the ministry of St. Mary into the community and the larger world.

Sister Madeleine Mary, Mother Superior of the Community of St. Mary, writes that “these interns have experienced intentional community and Benedictine practice and spirituality, as well as learned about the organic relationship between care for the body, the soul, and the earth,” and she’s excited about hosting this first gala event sponsored by the Community. It will include dinner, a silent auction, and a program of music given by our long-time New Iberia, Louisiana friends, Brenda Lowry and Joshua Murrell.

Brenda and Joshua will feature songs of hope and healing that they’ve written and recorded for their “Women at the Well” program, a collection of songs written from the point of view of some of Christ’s women disciples. They have presented the original music in parish halls, churches, private homes, and retreat centers throughout the country.

Brenda and Bubbs, songwriters and performers

These talented musicians will also present selections from a recording they made as “Blue Merlot,” their “B&B on the Rock” signature, many of which are based on hurricane recovery after Hurricane Katrina. Brenda writes: “When you’re sitting at your kitchen door, watching the water rise and realizing that there’s not a thing you can do about if, you learn something about surrender. And at some point, you laugh because the alternative is too ugly. Then that night, when the wind and rain have finally calmed, you see the Milky Way like never before, because there are no lights anywhere…and the beauty takes your breath away.” Those feelings inspired the music for special selections Brenda and Joshua (aka “Bubba”) will perform after intermission at the gala event.

I realize that many of my blog readers aren’t in Tennessee, but some of you may wish to help sponsor this event, and donations can be made to the Sisters of St. Mary, 1100 St. Mary’s Lane, Sewanee,TN 37375 so that the interns can continue to live, work, study, and pray at the Convent. They will help the gardens to flourish, worship to be enriched, and can engage in the life of a Benedictine monastic order. $1,000 will allow eight people to attend and participate in this benefit. The gala is scheduled for the evening of April 9, 2016 in Cravens Hall at Sewanee, and if you need more details, write to Sr. Madeleine Mary at the above address.

KATE AND LILLIAN

“This month (March) shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.” Exodus 12:2

I’ve always maintained that if everyone had the opportunity to hold a baby for about a half hour each morning, the world would become a better place to inhabit – and I’m able to add to this sage counsel that if everyone had the opportunity to hold twins each morning, they’d take a twofold mellow attitude into the world that day. I know because I had one newborn squeakbox under each arm yesterday morning — my great-granddaughters Kathryn Ann and Lillian Celeste Romero, and after holding them, I felt like I had just drunk a big cup of “Mello Joy”.

I had read all of this stuff about equations, models, and designs for showing differences and similarities in twins and looked at complicated scientific drawings that predicted behavioral differences, but when I saw those innocent faces framed by silky black hair, I decided to love both of them the same… despite any variations in personalities. Kate weighed in at 6 lbs. 3 oz., one minute before Lillian, who was slightly smaller at 5 lbs. 11 oz. Kate may be the most dominant of the pair because in ultra-sound pix taken before birth, she seemed to be sitting on Lillian during Kristin’s (their mother) entire pregnancy. However, I feel certain they’ll be “same-same” about loving each other.

On March 1, “the beginning of months” for them, the skies were overcast when the day began, but by 9 a.m. a brilliant sun had appeared. I looked out of my window and saw oak leaves fluttering in a south wind and intuited that the twins had blown in. All would be well. A few moments later, their grandmother Stephanie called to announce their arrival. I went into the living room and picked up Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child’s Garden of Verses that I had bought for myself years ago and opened to my favorite poem entitled “Happy Thought:” “The world is so full of a number of things,/I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” I spent a few hours thinking about all the children’s books I wanted to share with them, “sitting safe in nursery nooks,/Reading picture storybooks.”

When I visited Kate and Lillian yesterday, they were swaddled in blankets and lying on their backs. They seemed to be totally relaxed about their entry into the world, living up to their names, both of which mean “pure” — free from discordant qualities (which means no all-night crying sessions, right?) and free from contamination (so I hope no one in their room turns on the news containing political posturing this week!).

Here they are, waiting for all those arms to hold them… and one snapshot of big brother Alexander Charles enfolding one of them in his arms, excited about the miracle of two girls appearing in his life. He’s unmindful that he’ll soon have to share his toys and endure two girls following him to soccer games and places that he doesn’t want them to be. There’s even a snap of me in a happy moment bent over an infant that some people deem as “the first object of our compassion.”

A picture is worth a thousand of my words this morning, so I hope you’ll enjoy looking at the miracle of Kate and Lillian and will help me welcome them into a warm and cheerful world.

Photographs by Dad Martin and Victoria I. Sullivan