8 years ago today, Heather and I stood in front of friends and family consenting to be joined as one for the rest of our lives.

Many things have changed since then: how we look, how we dress and where we live just to name a few. We are now three instead of two since the birth of our son Jakob. There is a lot more grey hair, and in my case a lot more weight. But with all these things that have changed, a couple of important things have stayed the same.

Heather is still the most beautiful woman in the world to me... and to you if you know what's good for you. We still lay in bed and laugh before retiring for the night. When I hold her I still feel complete in a way that transcends explanation.

Thank you for 8 years full of wonder, sorrow and joy. I can only imagine what the next 8 will bring.

And it seems like it came out of nowhere.

I have not been one to look forward to Great and Holy Lent; it is a time of hard work and abstinence. Not that these two things are bad, on the contrary they are the very essence of what is good and right.

Don''t get me wrong, I understand and appreciate the "reason for the season" as it were, and when Holy Lent is over I feel the pangs of regret that I must wait another full year to experience the services.

But as time passes the memories of the beauty and profound truth I experience fade; I begin to forget who I am, and what I am here for. Thankfully, each year I welcome Holy Lent with a little more fervor, and a little more love... and most importantly with a more complete memory.

A memory that is filled with the sights, sounds and smells of repentance, redemption and miracles. A memory that exists to remind me that I was meant to shine brighter than the stars; that my heart is an abyss deeper than any ocean and is filled with rooms and caves that have never been illumined by love and true understanding.

But in this season of contemplation and repentance I am given the light to fill these rooms, a light that dispels every dark fear and lie that threatens to destroy me utterly. In the radiance of this light I am made whole, beautiful and complete.

Great Lent comes, and once again I am saved.

Glorify Him

I just wanted to take a moment before heading off to Liturgy to wish all of you out there who read this silly little blog a Festive Holiday season.

Remember to love your families well today, and rejoice in the fact that on today we remember the greatest of God's many miracles.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and all that rot to all my friends out there in internet land.  I am going to be away from the internet for the most part, until January 3rd, so if I don't respond its nothing personal.

I will leave you with these two gifts, firstly if you click 'All Comments' that you see under each Recent Commenter you will see a chronological listing of thier comments on this site.  For example you can see all of the comments by Michael Heilemann by going to http://www.chrisjdavis.org/history/Michael Heilemann/.

So if you are a regular commenter here and would like to see your list of comments just place whatever name you comment under after /history/ and you should be fine: http://www.chrisjdavis.org/history/your name.

The other gift is to let all oif you who have been wanting me to write a book on WordPress, looks like you have your wish.  All I can say at the moment is that I was approached to write a book, and I accepted.  I will let you know more as I am able.

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It is unbelievable how behind I have gotten on some more personal tasks.  Ever since I started the new job my time has become less and less free.

This morning I finally got around to importing the last 105 photos I took from Pascha (Orthodox Easter) this year, now I just need to weed out the bad ones and create a gallery of them.  Here are a couple to wet your appetite:

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Happy Pascha everyone!

Heather and I just returned from Paschal Services and it is 3:59 am... we left the house at 11:10.  There are no words to describe the Paschal Service, other than to repeat the words I spoke to my wife while we were waiting for our car to warm up outside of the temple space.  "Pascha is why I am Orthodox" I said to her, and she responded "Yeah, I know what you mean."

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This is an image from Forgiveness Vespers held on the Sunday preceding Great and Holy Lent.  During this service Orthodox Faithful that have received their traditions from the Russian Orthodox Church take a moment to ask each other for forgiveness for any sins we may have committed against each other so far this year.

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