Easter Morning

Easter.  The ascent from the underworld.  The cycle of the seasons.  The celebration of movement from death and dying, to life and rebirth.

It's a good holiday to have today. It's good to take a moment to appreciate the true nature of things in this world.  Because our planet turns, we have the seasons.  We move from periods of life to death and back again.

Spring is the season of starting fresh, creating new life. The birds are nesting and soon will be hatching.  The hummingbirds are mating with crazy erratic air shows.  Feathers are brilliant and joyous and enticing.  Spring is the inhale, bringing it all inside, gathering the widest spectrum of life and embracing it fully.

The summer will soon be on us, throbbing with heat and the pulse of youth.  Summer is surfs up, long evenings of barbeques and laughter, tanned skin that smells of salt and sun.  Summer is life being well lived, with long days of sunshine and plants that gulp in the vitamins and grow to their fullest expressions.  Summer is the pause at the top of the inhale, where we assimilate life, holding it within ourselves and basking in its nourishment.

 Fall is the decline, the slow inevitable exhale.  Fall is the moment when death is introduced. The colors explode in one last burst of glory, and then the world prepares for its descent.  The chill in the air whispers of the chill in the tomb.  Fall is an exuberant last hurrah.  A moment where mortality knocks on the door and we must let it in.

Winter is the three days in the tomb.  The moment after the exhale when it feels like it all may be lost.  Winter is Persephone's sojourn in the underworld, the closing of the shop, the sleeping of the soul, the pause between the final exhalation and the first new gasp of life.

Today we are celebrating rebirth and life.  I am still in the underworld, but am taking my thought process today to images of a full return to life.  Boogie boarding, bicycling, walking, breathing the air in the freshness of the morning when we go out to bird.  Feeling whole in body, without pain, without disease.

The ascent will happen, as it always does.  And it will be followed by other descents, as it always will.  The circle is the beautiful thing.  The circle is the paradox and the heartbreaker, the thing that causes us to lift up our hands in supplication and joy.

Thank you to my friends, family, and colleagues for all the beautiful flowers, which are making my home a glorious celebration of life, beauty, and rebirth during these difficult days.