Easter in Spring: A Reminder of Life's Beauty

Another Easter has come and gone. This morning, many children were greeted with gifts from the Easter Bunny. Baskets were filled with candy and toys awaited the children. Some kids even got new Sunday clothes to wear to church and get pictures taken for Facebook posts or for Grandma and Grandpa to put on the refrigerators  Pastels colored this beautiful Spring day. We were reminded of the new life that is budding on the trees and the beautiful blossoms that are and will fill the once wintered world. The skeletal trees will blossom with greens, pinks, purples, and whites to the background of beautiful blue skies.

Easter, for some, is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, after he died on the cross. His resurrection, in Christianity, gives hope for something more to come after death; Spirit and flesh recombining after the separation in death. Christ's new eternal life gives Christians a hope that this life and the death at its end are not the end-all. We do not go into the void but continue on. What a beautiful hope and joy that idea can bring to us in a world that seems hellbent on destroying it and one another.

However, whether you believe in the resurrection of Christ or not, the changing of seasons can bring the same hope for life and the same joy in what, oftentimes, feels like a fruitless battle in life. Spring, the rebirth or continuation of the cycle of the circle of life, brings back what appeared to be gone. The birds come back and wake with the sun, singing hymns of joy and life. The tulips poke through the winter-hardened soil and soon bloom their reds, pinks, and yellows. Grass begins to grow and soon Saturdays are filled with the scent of freshly cut grass. The laughter of children infuse the world and mixes with the music the wind makes as it dances through the boughs of the trees. The trees appear with color and we are bathed in color and the perfume of life.

The resurrection of Christ or the resurrection of new life in Spring. No matter which is more poignant to you, they both can invoke the same sense of relief and the same sense of hope in something more. They can strike within our hearts the warmth of belief and faith. They can bring about a sense of purpose. We can become reborn ourselves each Spring with a hope and an urge to continue on with this life though it may seem hard and cruel.

Let the beauty of life surround you. May you hang on until the very end, when you will be greeted with what is to come next. Namaste.