In the Pacific Northwest, it can feel that winter goes on a bit long, or that spring has forgotten to arrive. And yet, a closer look and we see this beauty waiting right there for us, a new season has come if we stop to see it. I love it here.
While we are busy with our own lives, life around us goes from being mostly buds and only a few blooms, to being mostly blooms and only a few buds. And this is Easter and the brightness that follows...the earth goes through a resurrection of its own and if we choose to see it, we will.
In my Gen X childhood, I grew up in the desert under a bright blue sky and the clouds of the Pacific Northwest were mysterious and intriguing to me. In my youngest days, on my swing set I would swing high enough for my feet to touch the bluest blue and come back down until my feet could kick up the dust of the earth below me. In those days there was boundless joy. It was like Eden in that I did not yet know shame, and joy was there for the taking at every moment. That warmth and light were both enough to get me through the winters of my life - especially those that took the longest to become spring.
This is Easter and the brightness that follows...resurrection at a finite moment in history, resurrection infinitely with us in time and in the space around us, and resurrection of who we were made to be - beings full of unbounded joy. If we do not feel that joy in this moment, we try and remember that even the smallest buds will bloom again, even the most overcast sky will be clear once again. I will keep trying to find my way back to that joy under the blue desert sky. And for now, the buds will blossom just over my head and remind me of hope - a place where joy is on it's way back to us.
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(c) 2012 photography and writing by Chloe - all rights reserved
