Tuesday, April 10, 2012

New Life

Easter is a time of new life- rebirth.  Lately life has felt pretty overwhelming. Nothing traumatic or earth-shattering, just every-day-life busy.  Balancing the ability to be mother, wife, daughter, homemaker/manager, cook, laundress, housecleaner, gardener, healer, knitter, spinner, crafter, reader, writer, volunteer, friend, woman....me. 

I'm not a particularly religious person but I take comfort in ritual.  We attended the solemn mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine on Easter Sunday. If you haven't been there, make a point of going next time you are in DC.  It's a beautiful cathedral, in an old-school European way.  The entire lower level is a collection of dozens of chapels built to honor the Mother (Virgin Mary, but I like to think of her as goddess mother figure.) The mass was celebrated by the cardinal and included a full choir, orchestra, bells, incense, trumpets, holy water, and prayers. It was a sacred space and a perfect time for meditation and connection to spirit.  Easter to me has always been a time to set goals and revisit previous goals.   Along with the solstices and equinoxes, Easter has always seemed the time for me to take stock and recharge.

The boys are back in school and the excitement about the baskets and eggs and chocolate is over, and now I am enjoying the silence in the house. Today I have time to be quiet and still.  I think I'll make another cup of tea and do a little spinning and let my brain wander.



Our Spring nature table

Eggs with leaf prints in boiling in onion skins


Hot cross buns (one-a-penny, two-a-penny, hot cross buns)