Easter is a time to look back while also looking forward. For me it is the time of year when I am reminded as to why I chose to live in this community. There is a collective understanding that we are in a place where we can be friends even if we hold differing views. Where we can even be competitive, but acknowledge that we are going to see each other around town and share an abiding faith in being neighborly.
I miss my mother on Easter perhaps more than any other holiday or even her birthday. Easter provided her warm perspective on people of different faiths, along with those who simply celebrate the awakening of the soil, coming together. When family and friends are woven into a community quilt of new hope.
My mother saw Easter as a better marker for us than the first day of every new year when we make resolutions we never seem to keep. This time of year we invigorate our internal life by connecting it again to our external life; when we draw the maps that will guide our goals, old and new, and expand our connections to the world.
That is our local legacy, too; a history of discovering commonalities while maintaining our individuality. It is a perfect template for the concept of “community.”
We share a common desire to nurture and protect our families. We thrive when we, as citizens and businesses, share our hopes and dreams, along with our civility, with the people around us.
This morning is a little cloudy but there is a gentle breeze muffling a cacophony of sounds as neighbors step back into their outdoor lives. Next door young children are already outside searching for eggs in chilly Spring air. It is a symphonic convergence of nature and humankind, scored by wind, trees, joggers and children. It is the energy from emerging flecks of green and budding life. Optimism is reborn as conflicts are replaced by outdoor activity and brighter rays from the peeking sun.
Spring came early but also just in time. May we all revel in the spirit of this rebirth that is a message of Easter we all can share.
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