Easter Monday

Keeping the Easter Spirit Alive

“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Zen Proverb

It’s Easter Monday. We’ve come through holy week. The story is always the same. We’ve sung the hosannas and processed with our palm fronds. We’ve declared ‘Christ has risen! Alleluia’! We’ve discovered the hollowness of the tomb and the chocolate bunny. We’ve consumed enough sugar to give Dixie Crystals a boost on the stock market, and we’ve shown off our new frocks and new sandals. Now what?

For the disciples, Easter Monday brought fear and trembling. If the authorities could kill Jesus, they could kill anybody. They went inside and locked the doors and didn’t’ come out until Pentecost. For us, it is business as usual. Chop wood, carry water. We go back to shuffling paper and hauling lumber and pouring asphalt. “It’s just another manic Monday.”

How do we keep the spirit of Easter going in our hearts? Perhaps, by realizing that resurrection is not a one-time occurrence. It happens in our lives all the time. You may remember my friend, Fern; the one who had been through chemo and radiation and then had her home destroyed by a tornado. Today, she’s leaving, fit and happy, for a long delayed trip to Savannah and Charleston with her family. Next week, the first of ten teams of U.C.C volunteers arrive in Birmingham from all over the U.S. to assist in rebuilding areas of our city that were destroyed by storms. Today, my girl-cousin, Sandy, has a new love, and a new lease on life. I’ll bet you could add rebirth stories to this list.

So, while you’re working today, remember that Easter is a symbol of new life—it is the butterfly coming out of its cocoon, the seed pushing its green shoot out of the earth. It is you, renewed and resurrected, beginning again in the freshness of spring.

In the spirit,
Jane