There is nothing like a sunny, snow-free, mild Easter to make a whole town smile. It is so nice to be out of the gloom of Lent and in to spring. I keep thinking about what the Dalai Lama said, that death is a change of clothes, and how Jesus would no doubt agree, and I feel better about so many things. Plus, my lilacs are budding, and any minute the leaves will be out, and church was great yesterday with busy little children and babies, and Nancy was back on the piano after her shoulder surgery and gave God credit for the processional hymn, Hail Thee Festival Day– which has about a dozen verses and two melodies, and to tell you the truth, I was glad we all made it through that one.
Easter dinner was more of a picnic this year and it belonged to the small children as the majority of my guests were under eight, although we did have a very tolerant octogenarian neighbor who baked them sugar cookies that looked like nests thanks to coconut flakes and pastel colored malted chocolate eggs. The nice thing about all the little ones is that it’s better not to clean too much before they arrive. (Chip and I even took off on a bike ride after church and before the party, a first for me. I was in the shower when the first guests pulled up.) And paper cups are fine, and even the utensils aren’t critical, as they carried around pieces of ham in their fists.
I’m feeling better now about everything thanks to a happy Easter. I’m a worrier and an optimist, which you’d think wouldn’t go together at all– but they do. If I expect trouble, I’m relieved when A. It happens and I was right to worry, but it’s never as bad as I think it will be, or B. It doesn’t happen and everything works out wonderfully. It’s a win-win.
I’m also less jittery now that the publication of Find the Good is imminent — it goes on sale in both audio and hardcover versions April 28 and booksellers keep sending me nice notes about how much they like it, and how many they are ordering, which while I know I’m supposed to be humble and not outer-directed thanks to attending to my Lenten meditations, it really does help, in an Easter “Alleluia” kind of way. (It’s the perfect gift for Mother’s Day if I do say so myself.) I have a tour in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest in May, and I’ll post it on the home page here as soon as it’s fairly solid.
And tonight there’s a Mexican brass band playing at the Chilkat Center at 7pm, which I also take as a good omen since I didn’t get to go to Mexico this year, although it sort of came here for Easter.
