Why do I like being Orthodox? And life, too.

Someone posed this question on The Ancient Way, one of the subforums of christianforums.com where I hang out sometimes.

Here's my response -
I suppose saying 'everything' is cheating?

I love the community that I belong to, that I am never alone. I love priests who are real people, and real fathers, who look after me and put up with an awful lot from this weirdo ex-protestant who asks too many questions. I love that there is an unbroken line in this faith, which remains the same throughout the ages. I love that we can claim history and to be the True Church.

I love the Saints, who pray for me and I know of their prayers. I love calling Mary Theotokos and Panayia and asking her for help. I love the fasts, even though they're hard and I complain about them sometimes when I want to eat cake or mcdonalds I love the feasts that fasts culminate in - and enjoy them all the more for having fasted.

I love my community, the family Christ promised to all who left 'fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters...' I love being on this road to becoming who I was meant to be, no matter how hard.

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Alright, for those of you who dislike the religion stuff, you can start reading again now :)

Here's just a quick post to let you know I'm still alive, kompoiskini on my wrist and sore feet. I've had an incredibly quiet week, apart from some car trips with my dad and making up an awesome pumpkin and lentil soup recipe - its here for those who want it. Be warned though, it makes a metric ton of the stuff - we're going to freeze a lot of it in serving sizes for peoples' lunches and for starving Kyriaki during the fasts. It's nestissimo - lenten, for anyone who would actually need that information, except it does use some oil to soften the onions etc in the beginning - swap it out for some other oil if it's an 'olive oil free' day, or do whatever your pet trick is if you don't use oil at all.

Today and tomorrow have been/will be field trip days for History, which means I got to meet my teacher - awesomeness, and one of my classmates plus a bunch of others from different classes. Today was the State Museum, especially the two Aboriginal exhibits - the static one and a visiting one on basket weaving in the far north which was COOL. We had half an hour break (I grabbed a prawn salad since I was starving by this point) and went to the art gallery to look at colonial art. We had lunch - a salad and tuna sandwich with avocado on brown bread for me, I took some painkillers and we went back for the final museum of the day at the Migration Museum which is on the site that used to be the Destitute Asylum, which I plan to write my major essay on, God-willing. This was very interesting but I plan to go back sometime soon and revisit it all when I have time, especially the section on the DA itself.

Dismissed for the day I dropped into Dad's office, swapped my laptop/school bag for the tote bag with my Bible etc in it and headed off to the markets and my favourite tea shop for a chai latte made with soy milk...yum. Probably the nicest one I've had, I think. I sat and drank that slowly while reading the paper then walked to Jo's work as she was taking me to study/fellowship tonight. We grabbed hot chips (fries, to you americans) on the way to her place and made chip'n'sauce (ketchup) sandwiches for dinner, and I had a bowl of fasolada as well (vegie and bean soup) but Jo doesnt like most vegies...weirdo. Fellowship was NUTS - we had every chair in the room full plus we went and stole a few more from the hall next door, and we had two priests as Fr John dropped in for the night too which was nice. We hung around for coffee, chatted to the new Serbs who have been coming, and then ran to the Church for Compline. The scarf-wearing-brigade is growing - it used to be just me and Rodika but her daughter Dana had one on tonight too, as did the other Dana who is serbian and new :) It's nice not to be an odd one out sometimes. I need to buy more of the handkercheif style ones, but they're hard to find in non-garish patterns that actually STAY PUT on your head. Not so much an issue now, but lemme tell you in lent with all the metanias and prostrations, having your scarf firmly pinned is a valuable asset. Especially during the bridegroom services of Holy Week where you find yourself juggling candle and prayer book while doing prostrations and trying to keep your scarf on your head. Fun stuff - and Jo and I added a fan to the mix this year too!

I'm home now, and very happy, and peaceful. I've got a bunch knitted on my sock now, and I may start the next sock tomorrow depending on what happens. I'm going to bed, anyway :)