Dear Friends,
I will be celebrating with my family today and will not be leading a Spirit Sunday teleclass on this Sunday. But I still wanted to connect with all of you and to wish you all a Happy Easter, Eostre and Passover. Whatever your faith and background, remember that there is so much to celebrate.
Take time to be with your family. Celebrate life. Call a friend. Notice that life is coming full circle once again - even for my friends up North - new growth, flowers and the robins, they really are returning.
The Springtime Goddess of Fertility, Eostre, or Ostara, from Old German, means the light of dawn or the light from the east. Long ago the month of April was dedicated to this goddess. People celebrated the return of growth, new life and the end of winter. And it was all because of Eostre, as she brought the return of the light.
It is said that the goddess Eostre once saved a bird who was nearly froze at the end of the winter. A little girl had found the bird in the woods, and cried to the goddess to save this beautiful creature. Eostre came and saved the bird, but turned the bird into a hare. And thus the little girl found that her animal friend was now a gentle rabbit, who still retained one quality of the bird - it could lay eggs!
And so the Easter Bunny was born. Another symbol of fertility and new life. A great symbol right now for the return of prosperity.
We all come from different beliefs - some of you are celebrating the meaning of Jesus death and resurrection, some of you are are remembering Jewish slaves who rose from oppression and went in search of the promised land, and I know many of you, are enjoying chocolate eggs - the symbol of new life. But across all belief systems and backgrounds we can remember what is true for us all. As a country we have overcome slavery, so we can celebrate freedom for all. As people living in a land that is still filled with opportunites, we can anticipate everyone finding their lives rising up again to a level greater than before.
And we can all see that this earth, Mother Earth, continues to support our life. The earth displays her glory in the spring and demonstrates the true meaning of prosperity. Spring always returns. Prosperity is all around. Look for it.
And freedom is ours. We must never take it for granted, but instead think of all the ways we can use it. We are free to change the way we live, to choose a new path, to make changes in the way we look at our lives. The freedom we have will see us through anything, because as long as we remember we are not vicims, we will find the opportunities that Spirit presents to us.
Everytime we pass through winter, we may feel gloomy and sad. Sometimes we forget how it feels to have the sun warming our skin, or how beautiful a field of wild flowers can be. But now it is here. And so remember that life continues to flow and to change. And you can count on the return of the spring, you can count on the return of the sun, and the new day always dawns.
So enjoy chocolate eggs, birds, flowers, prosperity, and freedom. The promised land is not so very far away.
Happy Holy Days of Spring,
Cat RunningElk
