Easter 2021… Who would have ever predicted LAST Easter when we were cautiously hopeful that we might “soon” be able to gather again for family holidays in a life fully lived, that a year later we would still be living the challenge.
In our home, we decided to make our own traditions, so we planned a safe and socially distant Easter fire celebration in our driveway with close friends.
And here, a year later, we are doing it again. Some ARE gathering now.., in churches and restaurants, homes and similar gathering places. We are choosing to remain vigilant as we cautiously re-engage in life.
This year, as part of our gathering, I proposed that we “bring” our children and grandchildren, nieces & nephews, great nieces and great nephews to the fire.
Inspired by the book of Joel, what lays most deeply on my heart these days is how our generation has inherited the earth we give them, with all its demise and challenges.
“Your sons and daughters shall prophesy…
your old people shall dream dreams,
and your young people see visions…
This winter season, which is soon to be left behind, has challenged me to look past the ways we have failed the earth and our children. We as a people have ‘created’ a situation here on earth, which we ‘give’ to the next generation. I have struggled with the truth that what we offer them is packed with ego, consequences and inequalities. But the new life around us reminds me that what is seen is not all that is present. I have spent a blessed portion of the cold of winter looking at what our children are for us.
Shifting my eyes from the often present ‘hopelessness’ of their future, I have begun to recognize the many gifts that we as an older generation HAVE bestowed on them, and even MORE, on the GIFTS that they have entered the arena of life with.
Tonight, as we light our personal Easter vigil fire, we will name each of them, called to be the change by the gifts and talents they have been born to live out. Whether in need, or forging a future, they will be raised in the gifts they have been given and the paths they are on.
New life does come in many forms, and for me… this season of Easter and new light is a blessed reminder that something bigger and more loving that our human failings and struggles always has our back, even as we have our children’s.
Thank you Grace … for your inspiration thoughts and photos. Happy Easter to you and all of your family
…and to you and your family, Daneen!
Happy Easter, may your blessings continue.
Thank you Patti. Looking forward to sharing our stories this week!