We begin the “Bright Friday” diary entry by mentioning the fact that the monastery grounds are sprinkled with a multitude of various kinds of plants, set up in memory of people we have known through the years.
I mention this because in late afternoon Archbishop Lazar called to ask if I might photograph the large pink dogwood tree that had been planted in memory of Vladika Varlaam’s mother, a number of years ago. I got my little camera and walked out, passed the little gate house chapel and on to the dogwood. Truly it is magnificent and in full bloom. There were several other beautiful trees nearby and these also captured my eye and that of my camera.”Hmm! I wondered. How many other interesting and beautiful plants and combinations of objects are there worth memorializing?” The end result is that I walked out to the monument in the field where there is a large icon of the “Joy of Canada” as well as the large wooden cross which marks the end of the walkway between it and the icon. Then along the monastery road there were various simple things such as tree stumps with what most people would call “weeds” growing around them. There were large stones in a variety of shapes and colours, just begging to be a part of the photographic collection. One of the photographs is of a large, nearly rectangular stone with a bundle of dried grass lying on top; this reminded me of some of the stories in the Old Testament, of sacrifices offered to God, on hand made altar stones sooooo, this definitely had to be photographed. Altogether, it was possible to find and photograph 25 interesting views of what I like to call “natural art”. What a great way to celebrate our Bright Friday and remind myself and everyone else that, “Christ is Risen!’
