Although Ian tried to remind us that the week following Palm Sunday is all about betrayal, denial and losing our way, the message couldn’t stand up to the giddy excitement of being together in such hope…and let’s face it, in the presence of a real-live donkey. At age 15, Misty the Donkey is the granddame of professional donkeys in the area. (That’s nearly 50 in human years.) We were lucky to have her, as her dance card is often full on the weekends. Our Palm Sunday celebration was planned around her schedule as she squeezed us in between a birthday party and a pop-up petting zoo. As anyone who has ever attended Montview’s Blessing of the Wild Animals knows, there is something about animals out of context that turns us all into children. As the procession started, Clover and Ian were flinging their aspergillums above our heads almost playfully like kids about to start a water fight. Due to the timing of spring break, few actual children were in attendance, but the crowd, largely made up of the fully or partially vaccinated, waved their palms like preschoolers in a Palm Sunday pageant as Misty nonchalantly led us around the block. Even though Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the end for Jesus on Earth, my heart was light knowing that the darkness of the coming holy week was so endurable compared to a year of Covid.  

– Submitted by Linda Orosz