A Small Gift for Eostre

This iris is my favorite of the wild ones that bloom in our hills every spring—an unusual hybrid of the purple and white ones. This year one bloomed early, in the last days before my second knee replacement was due to keep me out of the hills for a while. I took it as a gift. Now I’m recovering well, and want to share it with you.

Happy Easter—this strange amalgam of an old Pagan holiday sacred to Eostre or Ostara, Goddess of spring, with her eggs of life and rabbits of fertility, and the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. Either way, the holiday represents regeneration, and it shares this time with Pagan, Jewish, Musli and other religions’ honoring of the rebirth of life in the spring. This year, may it bring the resurgence of those sacred values at the heart of Jesus’ preaching and so many teachings from multiple traditions—caring for the poor and welcoming the stranger, treating one another with respect, kindness and love, sharing our blessings and doing our best to alleviate the sufferings of others, speaking the truth, especially to power. Those are the values that will get us through these times when cruelty, aggression and greed are sold to us as strength. As the green shoot rises from the buried seed, may love and compassion arise and bring us a world of justice and peace.

If you’d like to hear my Passover meditation, it’s here:

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If you want to learn more about creating ritual to build community and resilience in these times, I have an online class on Rituals for Resilience starting April 14, at 5:30 Pacific Time. By donation, ASL interpreted for the hearing impaired. Here’s all the information!