For Christine.
Today, many Christians around the world celebrated Easter, the holy day that represents Jesus resurrection. The fact that this holy day aligns with Passover and the spring Equinox is not accidental—underscoring the literal and metaphorical connection of Easter to re-birth.
American cultural tradition has helped to develop Easter into an experience in over-indulgence, and has missed the opportunity to connect to a greater purpose. Somewhere in the midst of the Easter Bunny and Easter bonnets and baskets overflowing with every single Peppa Pig item a parent could buy, there is an opportunity.
Take a moment to consider the metaphor of Easter: sustaining faith through pain, suffering, death, and then re-birth. For many, that is the experience of moving through grief or loss. We suffer, yet we maintain some version of our faith. We question, we argue, and finally we accept the loss and find that we are able to come out on the other side—not healed, because we carry the scars forever—but able to start living again. We are “reborn.”
These experiences do not happen just one day each year—we have many “little Easters” that we can celebrate. They are opportunities to see our lives differently; to experience pain, or loss, or suffering, and choose to give those feelings up in order to see growth.
When we choose gratitude as a daily practice, rather than a laundry list of things that went wrong with our day, we are embracing the opportunity to celebrate that “little Easter” in our lives. When we do not understand why, but we accept where we are on our path, we are choosing to live in that “little Easter” moment.
My own faith has been badly beaten by the loss I have experienced. Today, I am holding on to this image of a “little Easter” because it feels like all I can do. I cannot say that I have accepted my loss or that I am done grieving, but I can say that for today, I have found a way to be grateful.
As you start this week, think of how you can celebrate your own “little Easters” each day. Find opportunities to see gratitude, to seek growth, and to sustain some level of faith even in your darkness. Be the crocus, who is so determined to see spring, that she will bloom even in the snow.
