The Lenten and Easter stories we hear during this season are so much more than historical accounts. They are spiritual guides presented repeatedly for us to see and know life’s many paradoxical journeys. They show joy and celebration, love and loss, betrayal and abandonment, death and new life, transitions and transformations.

For the past six months I’ve been on what feels like an emotional roller coaster. The expectations, the hustle, the leave taking, the challenges, the descent into deeper darkness and finally the ascent into an eternal Easter. How has it been for you?

I’ve been following the natural rhythms of our liturgical calendar most all my life and they are finally more than dates and events of the past. They are part of everyday life. Occasionally I can identify all the seasons in the Church year in a single day. That’s because they’ve come alive in me. Yesterday as Easter, today as Good Friday. How is this possible? Do you really think life is sequential like our calendar events?

Isn’t it more realistic and even more logical to recognize that all the events of the biblical narratives happen all the time in all of us? This Lent I’ve had to give up my drive to accomplish, my striving for greater success, and my clinging to old habits. It’s not been easy. Will this be over during the six weeks of the Easter season? Will I be able to die to my old ways and ascend to a new life just because the calendar says it’s time to do so?

No, but the journey will continue. I’ll keep Stilling, Trusting, Opening, and Presencing. Discoveries will happen and I’ll learn to relax more readily. I’ll observe my thoughts, words, and actions with more awareness and will continue to practice Mindfulness. I’ll cultivate new ways of being and becoming. I’ll continue to let go of my resistance to change. I’ll invite more love into every situation and learn to live with more appreciation. Is not this the Easter message? Isn’t darkness connected to light, death to life, sorrow to celebration, loss to gain, and fear to love? Isn’t the end just another beginning?

Do you remember the celebration of Maundy Thursday’s Seder, the last and first meal of Life? Can you relate to Good Friday’s hours of loss, grief, death, and uncertainty?Are you awake to the in-between spaces of suffering and celebration, death and life, confusion and confidence? Do you walk the labyrinth of Life’s many pathways and embrace the wonder of every new moment?

These are the action items of Christ Consciousness, transcendence, and resurrected Life. These are the Appreciations, the Alleluias as Christ energy, life’s anointing, blessing, and creativity arise in you daily. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. In my blindness I’m beginning to see with new eyes. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!