Communion

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Rachel did her First Holy Communion yesterday, the high point of a long week of preparing the house for invasion by relatives. We are anti-houseproud. We just don’t care. Except on special occassions, then we rush around like mad things painting, decorating, cleaning and tidying.

My week has been consumed with refreshing the woodstain on our fences. They were looking especially weather-worn after we skipped a couple of years on the fencecare regimen. It took three, maybe four, days and encompassed the garden shed, which was recently discovered to have housed an entire civilisation of mice during the winter. (note: never leave newspaper in your shed – it’s great bedding material for furry critters).

In a stroke of minor genius, I took this opportunity to finally ruin a pair of jeans I should’ve thrown out months ago. Nothing like splatters of woodstain to finish off old clothing.

We both ended up in a minor frenzy because we had to put work on the back-burner for much of the preparation, then with house guests on Friday and Saturday night – our busiest night of the week, work-wise – we got next to nothing done. And when you’re self-employed, not getting any work done is a big cause for concern!

In the midst of it all, the Communion thing happened. Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m an out-and-out atheist. But that aside, I know how much of a milestone Communion is – it’s one of the first big events you experience along with the rest of your class. You’ve got a little bit older.

I remember my own Communion. Being made to stand with various classmates who I may or may not have been close to and adopt a pious joined-hands pose. The horror-story styles of early 80′s country town fashion will be evident in those photos. Thankfully, Rachel’s attire was an elegant and timeless design, so she may not be as mortified when she looks back.

They do Communion a little differently these days though. No mention of transubstantiation – the idea that the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. I was a little taken aback by this during the ceremony. I’d teased the kids about eating skin earlier in the week and they’d given me blank stares. Now I know why. I don’t know why they’ve dropped the references to “This is my body”, perhaps so as not to gross out the children, I can’t say. I do think it’s a total cop-out though, as the whole idea of Communion is that they’re ready to receive the sacrament. They should surely be ready to understand the core belief that the priest ‘magically’ transforms the bread into flesh during that ceremony.

But ho-hum, let’s drop the atheist agenda for a moment. It was still a lovely day for Rachel. She had her highs and lows, as you’d expect – lots of excitement and adrenaline in the early part of the day. I actually warned her that she’d get really tired, really quickly. She did. Some diva-behaviour ensued. I think like Lisa and myself, having a housefull of guests is bittersweet. It’s lovely to see folk and spend time with them, but there’s literally nowhere in your house that’s peaceful.

And in the end, we barely saw Rachel after we returned home. While we were busy with the adult guests, she was enjoying the bouncy castle we’d hired for the back garden and receiving visits from her friends. Today’s been so placid by comparison – after the last of the overnighters went home, we did some tidying and finally relaxed. I found myself sitting on the stairs (coolest – literally the coolest – spot in the house) reading a magazine. The Communion co-incided with a heatwave. And while the blue skies are a joy to look at, it’s three-showers-a-day hot around here!

Next week: getting back to normal. And working out what the hell we’re going to do during the summer when we’re working from home and the kids are off school.