Maundy Thursday

My inner Liturgical Calendar isn't as finely tuned as it used to be, but I DO at least remember that it's Holy Week and today is Maundy Thursday.  Maundy (from Latin mandatum or mendicare), or Washing of the Feet remembers the Last Supper Jesus had with his disciples.  They celebrated the seder, or Passover, and after the meal Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.  Many churches do a foot washing as part of their Maundy Thursday worship services.  I've been on both sides of it, as the washer and washee, and I'm definitely more comfortable doing the washing.  I always feel a little bit weird having my feet washed.  I'm like Peter who tried to convince Jesus to let him (Peter) wash his (Jesus') feet.  I guess I have to remember to let people care for me.

Since foot washing involves bare feet, I thought for today instead of doing shoes I would do fun pedicures.  You want those feet to be cute for the foot washing!  (Yes, that was sarcasm.  Yes, I do realize that having "cute" feet is missing the point of the foot washing ritual.  But, taking something seriously and holding a tradition within the respect with which it is due does not mean a little whimsy can't be involved.)

You know I love stripes.  You might not know that I used to always paint my toenails different colors.  I guess before I had my current shoe fetish I had a love of brightly painted toenails.  I had to dress those Birkenstocks up somehow!

 

More stripes.  These say spring on the left and fall on the right to me.

Beachy toes!  Although I'm not entirely sure what the design on the left is?

 

 Polka dots!  These are very springy and Eastery.

Of course I chose a blue option.  This is more along the lines of what I might get nowadays.  I'm not usually very adventurous with my pedicures these days.

 

More polka dotty Easter toes.

Ooooh, I love dragonflies.  AND they're blue!

Oh man, I might have to see if I can do this myself on my toes for Sunday.  Sooooo cute.

Don't let your pedicure, or lack thereof, keep you from getting your feet washed.  Jesus loves your toes no matter what!

Memory Lane: 2013 (it was the beginning of Holy Week three years ago). 2014 (elephants and Arts Camp).

3 Things:

1. Day 3 of the new hair cut and I still like it.  It even looks cute when I am lazy and don't do anything with it.
2. The weather is so pretty.  Lovely and sunny but not yet hot.
3. People in my life who tell me to shut up and let them take care of me.  More often than not I need that.

Maundy Thursday

It's Holy Week, and today is Maundy Thursday.  In the Gospel of John instead of the scene of Jesus instituting what we now know of as communion, he takes on the form of a servant and washes the disciples' feet.  In many churches all over the world people are following this tradition and washing each others' feet.  Which means in the church today is pretty much about taking your shoes off.  Not a lot of Maundy Thursday themed shoes out there (if there are any).  We'll do clip art instead:

Today wasn't only Maundy Thursday, though.  According to my website of odd dates it's also:

National Ferret Day.  This picture cracks me up.

Blue ferrets?  Still really cute shoes.

It's also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day!  And these shoes  are adorble.

As well as World Autism Day.  The puzzle piece is a symbol of the Autism spectrum, and blue is the color (maybe you've seen the phrase, "light it up blue" for today), so these shoes are pretty perfect.  I have a friend whose son is on the spectrum and she has a puzzle piece tattoo, because she's cool like that.  Also, her son is adorable and hilarious.

I might need to get a pair of these to wear next year on April 2.

Finally, today is International Children's Book Day, so you know I'm on board with that.  Since it's almost Easter, I thought of this book.  It's a book!  The mama bunny gets to be the Easter Bunny!  And there are gold shoes!  Really, what more could I ask?

How about some adorable bunny shoes?  The hubby used to have 3 bunnies as pets.  His ex-girlfriend (who is a friend of ours) got them when they broke up and sadly the last one just died at almost 12 years old, which is really old for a bunny.  Which is kind of off-topic, but she and I could have bunny shoes to honor the bunny trifecta.

Well, it was a busy day of holidays, and a busy day of running around doing a million different errands for me.  Definitely time for bed after a full and good Maundy Thursday.

Maundy Thursday

I think I was born in the wrong decade.  I love so many styles from different eras.  I'm sure I've babbled on about this before, but I love go-go boots, and poodle skirts, and Gibson girl styles, and flapper dresses, and on and on.  OK, I probably don't necessarily want to live in all of these eras.  I like things now, like the right to vote, the ability to be ordained, the fact that my marriage to man of color isn't illegal.  Oh, but the clothes.  I wonder if I could get a time machine and just go back to visit those times for  historical and clothing purposes of interest?  In the meantime, I just dress up for Halloween.  All of this leads up to today's calendar picture:

 

 

I  love them.  And why can't I seem to take a decent picture lately???

 

Today, as the post title says, is Maundy Thursday.  Last Sunday was Palm Sunday, this Sunday is Easter, which means we are smack in the middle of Holy Week.  For pastors, this means lots of services.  From last Sunday to this, I will be involved in 9 different services.  From a lighter perspective, it also means I get to plan shoes with lots of different clerical outfits.  Today I went with these:

 

 

These are some of my favorites.  At my first congregation I had one woman who would always complain when I wore "boring" shoes.  For her, that meant shoes that didn't have color.  I like the simplicity of these, and I love the ankle strap.  Besides, I'm wearing a green dress today with a big pattern of black and white flowers, so I think simple shoes are probably better in this case.  I've had these shoes for a long time.  I was thinking 5 years or so, until I realized that I wore these shoes at the bean's baptism, and the bean is going to be 10 in July.  Yikes.  So now I'm trying to remember if I bought these when I still lived in Texas, or if I bought them my first semester of seminary.  Oh well, 10 years on and I still like them.