My little brother Michael had been enthralled when, as a young child, he got his first Advent calendar. When he learned that Easter Season was FIFTY Days? He was about jumping out of his skin! (Of course, he was sure there would be a toy or treat of some kind for every day of the 50 days to come.)
My Dad was raised Catholic, and our family had continued his family’s tradition of not eating meat on Friday during Lent. In response to my little brother’s disappointment over no Easter/Advent Calendar, our family started a new tradition that we would have dessert every Friday night during the Easter Season.
Eastertide can easily be a forgotten season outside of the walls of the church. We tend to put energy into observing the 40 days of Lent, but we often give only one day to a full Easter celebration.
I think of Lent as a time to ‘weed the garden’ of life. Our thoughts, habits, words, time. We each have different ways of ‘taking spiritual inventory’, and Lent is the time to seek out and discard those things interfering with us fully experiencing the joy of God’s love.
Perhaps Eastertide is the season we plant flowers where the weeds had been?
The season to celebrate the beauty in our lives – to dance, sing, make art, take time for talks, walks, to play, to give to others - generally to do more of whatever it is that makes us shine.
Let the promise and the hope of Resurrection be felt deep in our souls – for more than a day. Let it settle into our daily walk of life.
Let’s have that dessert, whatever it means to us. We have 50 days to celebrate Resurrection. May it bring us JOY.
Coleen+
