Easter is a time of the ending of winter and the regrowth of spring. If you are Christian it is a time of rebirth, of triumph in the face of death. The long cold has succumbed to the warmth of the sun and the rain washes away all the dirt and detritus that has come before and to start fresh.
We put away the somber colours, open the windows and let out the stale air – we clean the house from top to bottom and put away the heavy outerwear. Soon the air will smell of fresh grass and leaves and the heady brief scent of lilac, my favorite flower.
I think about my past at celebrations such as these. Easter was one of the fun church events – my favorite was Good Friday where the church was draped in purple and we had the candlelight service, incense being swung down the aisle.
I grew up in what my mom called a mixed marriage – she was high Anglican, my dad Catholic. We attended both churches but were mainly Anglican back then.
I left church many years ago and I’m not really religious in the traditional sense: I liked being in the choir and the music but even as a child I had trouble with being asked to suspend my free will to abide by rules that seemed remarkably unfair to women.
I live my spiritual life quietly and in my own way. I’m fortunate that my parents raised me in both their different styles but each one loved me enough to know that the right path for me was the one that I chose to live, the one they hoped would make me happy. There’s been some pretty deep dips in my life for sure, however I am happy that I did have the strength of will and the resolve to live my life the way I thought best – not just for myself but for my own little circle such as it is.
I am grateful that my father and I were so close for so many years until he passed in 1995. So while times like Easter remind me of what I no longer have it also brings back flashes of when I was small wearing fancy Easter dresses with white gloves and wide brimmed hats that blew off in the wind; later, of he and I singing together after the dinner he’d cooked – usually ham and pineapple – and sipping a glass of wine.
My mom’s relationship to me was more subtle because my path led me to be autonomous and that meant working full time while raising children, living 3 other places with demands of life that meant trips for work and staying at her place or going out for dinner, long telephone conversations and letters and cards sent by mail.
My long good bye for her came about four years ago when it was not possible to talk on the phone anymore and letters could no longer be written or read by her. So I treasure with all my heart a letter she wrote to me for Valentines Day 2014 where she told me how proud she was of me. I’ve photocopied it and scanned it and after 5 years in my purse, I put the original away for safekeeping.
My mom was always amazed how she could create such different daughters: one fair and one brunette, one traditional and one “mod” as my aunt used to call me, both of us mothers ourselves.
Time can steal our health, our eyesight, our hearing, our minds. But what time cannot steal is the love that parents have for their children.
As a child I knew comfort in their words and their arms; as an adult as a friend and confidante to both. I am so glad to be the progeny of these two remarkable people. So as the days pass by and I myself grow older, I remember that there is nothing that can ever take away the one thing that brought me here to begin with: my parent’s love. I can no longer converse with either of them but I do, in quiet moments, in my heart.
And so my Easter message for 2019 is this: A parent’s love is everlasting, no matter where your path will lead you. The love lives on in your children and your children’s children and beyond. There is no one and nothing that can ever truly remove the love a parent has for their children and it is the passing forward of this to our own that is eternal. All that came before us lives in our cells. As such we are the embodiment of creation and light from the love our parents, and our parent’s parents, through time immemorial to the future. Long past the days where we are remembered , the light lives on.
Happy Easter everyone.
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