Easter Alleluja !

 like ours from those days and so charming!

Best wishes for Easter / Spring 2017

O Radiant Dawn!     Splendor of Eternal Life!    Sun of Justice!     Shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of Death !       - I love this one of the famous  "O Antiphons" - my favorite.

Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal or Spring Equinox - to keep it in tune with nature and with Source of all nature, however you exprience it.  Spring is a miracle, but can be capricious and laughs, as it defies Man's attempts at structure - with a blizzard and a record high in the first thirty days of this year's season in America's Northeast.

I love my present life and I believe it is powerful to visit the past and bring some of the best of it to the present and share it round for the future - a treasure to leave my busy children to enjoy later, when they like.  And so this memory for you.

There had been grand life energies in my parents' large families that triumphed over wars, recession and even death.  And having endure they truly rejoiced at " the Radiant Dawn"; they enjoyed in those years: beauty , love, prosperity, property, good work, love marriage and children - they sang and danced through their days and helped the others and were helped as life calls us to do.  

 And , oh, the holidays!   It did not take much money to make it the best and done with youth and energy and hearts full of love and gratitude, they seemed always ambitious to share the good glow!   I grew up thinking everyone did the same and many did.  Hundreds of cards at Christmas and visits that took till New Years to complete.  Gifts and cozy warm things and fun in the snow and all tucked up safe and sound in work and love.

And Easter brought the same wonderful feelings, although , until I was older, I remember finding the Birth of a Baby easier to understand than Redemption and Resurrection -  my own shortfall did not daunt me - and I  just enjoyed the renewal of the seasons - Spring!     

Mornings smelled alive with new life and the wonderful New England soil - as soon as I could, I planted my first little garden and aunties and uncles smiled an told me lots about flowers and trees, so I would know a bit about what I was doing - they liked my many questions.  And later the fun of sketching and painting them - and making photos with my own first camera. Yes.

My Dad was musical and a tecchie - his record collection would be worth a small fortune today and some of it was saved, including the wonderful Easter music, still sung today - "Here comes Peter Cottontail!" , "Poor Floppy"  and others to make the days a happy dance.  

 There seemed to be Jellybeans and chickies and bunnies and Easter eggs everywhere!   The large sugar ones with hollow centers filled with dioramas to enoy thru a peep window at one end!   For me - already interested - there were Instructions for the crafts - coloring the eggs!  

Who would guess in in 1957 that that one day one fancy egg of mine would be viewed by a First Lady of the United States of America at the White House - but my happy heart on the subject is a fine thing to enjoy - a thing that no one can daunt.    I see the proud faces of my relatives, though I lived distant from them at the time and joyful phone calls had to be enough.  

It was the delight in doing up the simple little happy colored eggs that inspired and the Mommies who showed us how it was done.  Boiled and colored and served to many guests with the fancy beets and horseradish sauce that won over the flatness of egg and brought bright pink to the table, with the Easter ham, and irish bread and Polish borscht for spring with the special spring sausage!  The kitchen was boiled to shining before, during and after - and even Mother's new range was pink with pushbuttons!  

Then, since it was all about Jesus somehow - and very sad, but then happy again - we would take some of the food in a basket to church for the Priests' blessings, so that all from the kitchen would be good and blessed, and always with new happiness, too!  

And Spring meant putting the winter things away - all the fine and not so fine would be done till after Autumn when the weather chilled again.   For now it was Spring and joyfully running about with Mother and friends for the gay spring things for home and wardrobe - plenty of the light wools  often in lilac - including the lilac blossom-clustered hats that were popular at the time.  We love to look our best and win the respect of the women and the  affections charming our men - then and now!

Such happy bustle and  prayer at end of day - thanking God for the good grace!  Odd -  somehow my own love and work does not feel the same as those endless glowing days as a child in that world. And  yet,  I know I did similarly with  our own son and daughter later on with extra to spare for all the other children near us, so grateful to have that example to pass on.  They are married and I hope they will want to make their own version of it all to share with children of their own, but if not, at least they have that good in them from us.

Those bunnies!   Chocolate ones in pretty baskets woven and full of fun green grass and cellophane - or bunny cakes or the wonderful huggy ones, small and huge later on for fun!  But most of all , one year there were real bunnies, as we scampered at our parents' call one Easter morning to enjoy the living room egg hunt before church - out from behind Dad's lounge chair they came, to make us catch our breath - the thrill!   "Lippety, lippety !   lippety, lippety !"  two tiny marvels  to pet and feed and love.   Soon we had proper  lessons in their care and Dad built a hutch in the back yard for them and finally trained them to enjoy the back yard and then on their own in our wooded yard with brook nearby.  

And someone's baby bunnies showed up the next year!  I share the story to share pure pleasure and inspiration. All these years later, I remember and it feeds me - a life thing!   Not only our own family circle but Easter at the homes of friends and family living distant dance again in my mind - one did the ancient egg crafting with the waxes and dyes.  Another did up an Easter Egg Tree, and another lived in the garden feeding the lilacs and planting for the warm months to come.   And instead of a teddy bear, a musical stuffed lamb was mine - of real sheeps wool - I was sad to outgrow him but at that point someone "disappeared" him and yet I guessed it was time.  Growing up is fun and we must not be babies. 

Especially not at Easter !  
The Church music and Handel's Halleluja Chorus or Leonard Cohen's  -  the world sings - the air sings with rains and breezes and our hearts sing, every time we're not looking , especially!  

Winter and War may have their way - but I am Spring and I win!  

May it be, for you and yours always.
If you would like to share a thing here, please feel welcome.   

Happy Easter!