It Is Risen: The Joy Of Life!

All of Christendom is celebrating Easter and as a Pagan I’m delighting in all the confectionery fertility symbols: eggs, bunnies, lambs and chicks. In the two weeks since Ostara the energy, vitality and promise of Spring continues to wax fat and sassy.

Lawns that have lain dormant are thick and peppered with dandelions and little purple flowers. The giant Japanese cherry in my backyard transformed overnight into a benevolent pink cloud. In the woods the dogwood blossoms peek out, skittish as a young doe.

Look all around you and see the tenacious and fragile new life bursting forth. My neighbors are emerging to work on their gardens as if something called them to thrive among  the foliage. It’s a miracle that is repeated year after year and we never grow tired of it. We thrill to birdsong and daffodils, we savor the sun on our skin and marvel that, despite the struggles and hardship we face, life is good!

It’s an innate goodness, a feeling of joy that requires no apology or explanation. Life is good simply because it is. Spring reminds us of this, that even though we all must face a dark, cold, lonely winter, eventually joy must spring forth in all it’s lusty glory!

It doesn’t matter if Easter is based on the feast of the Pagan Goddess Eostre. It doesn’t matter if Eostre was an invention of the Venerable Bede. What matters is life is good, it is reaching out for you and, oh, how your joy increases when you reach back!