I've always loved Easter, a joyous season when the earth is reborn in a swell of new life washed with vibrant color, a time of spiritual and physical renewal. I can't imagine Christ's resurrection taking place at any other time of year. This is most fitting. As a six year old recently returned from an early childhood spent in Taiwan, I delighted in my first egg hunt in a neighbor's yard filled with blooming crocus and daffodils. Tucked in the green grass and among those shining blossoms were the many-colored eggs, like hidden jewels. Magical. And chocolate rabbits. I was in awe of an American Easter.
Of course, in those days little girls wore hats and gloves and crinolines under their Easter dresses. Yes, I was born in the 1800's. I also received my first white Bible on Easter, which is still my favorite one. It had this new book smell and books were quite special back then because my father was an underpaid English professor and we were poor. I just liked smelling my new Bible, but did eventually read much of it. The names of my favorite Sunday School teachers are inked in the front under the section entitled Friends at Church. I must have been a real nerd not to have any children listed. Actually, I know I was.
Another early Easter memory is our family returning home from church and me climbing from the car to bury my face in a golden clump of daffodils by the back doorstep, beaded with rain. Their sweet scent said spring to me. And new life. I always imagined the tomb where Christ was buried and rose again surrounded by daffodils and crocus.
"For I remember it is Easter morn,And life and love and peace are all new born." ~Alice Freeman Palmer
"Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness." ~Floyd W. Tomkins
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