Easter Morning.
Another one of those “Religious” Holidays
So I am nervous about saying, “Happy Easter!”
Because if someone belongs to a religion that doesn’t celebrate
Or associates Christianity with the ideology of TED CRUZ or other neo-cons,
They might be offended.
But, like most Holidays from YOM KIPPUR to DIWALI to CHRISTMAS…
To me, it’s an Invitation!
Welcome!
Come Celebrate!
HAPPY EASTER!

REBIRTH!
It can mean So Many Things.

 An Opportunity to Start Over.
Start Again.
Turn a Corner.
Forge a New Path.
Do Something.
Dispel Fear.
Open Up.
Try Again.
Awaken to your Own Possibility.
Offer Your Gifts.
Overcome Adversity.
See Beauty in some place where you have not seen it before.
Discover a New Option.
Do it Differently.
Do it Again.
Let Go of Fear of Failure.
Fail!
Start!
Start Something New!
Reinvent Yourself!

This is what we Celebrate Here.
Blossoms.
Newness.
Burgeoning.
Development.
Sunshine.
Water and Light and Nourishment.
Nature Offers us Everything we need.
The Dirt in which we take Root.
The Sunrise.
The New Day.
The Present Moment.
The Power of Now.
The Chance to Be Whoever we Want to Be.
The Chance to be Ourselves.
The Chance to be Ourselves again.

My MOM is 89.
She is Blind in one eye now.
It’s a terrible thing and she finds it disconcerting.
Yet with Courage and Grace and an indefatigable Zest for Life,
She now keeps her Magnifying Glass next to her phone.
She adjusts.
She reinvents herself.
She does what she has to.
I do not imagine she finds this easy
And I’ve no doubt she finds it at times daunting
But she persists.
She Awakens to Who she is Today
And she sets Sail.

ReBirth does not seem to me that it would always be an easy thing.
Birth does not seem easy, and we are embryonic then.
As big Clunky Adults who make a Lot of Mistakes,
It would seem even more difficult.
That’s OK.
Things don’t have to be easy to have Value.
In fact, it is often quite the opposite.
That which comes hard-won is often most appreciated.

Does your Life seem a Battlefield of Abject Terror?
Start Over.
Look Again.
Look Harder.
See its Beauty.
Where to Begin?
Begin in Gratitude.
That is Always a Good Starting Place.
Start Today.

This is the Season of Baby Chicks and Colorful Eggs and Bunny Rabbits.
It is the time of Spring.
ReBirth.
It is a Celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
ReBirth.
It represents another Chance.
How many times have we asked for Another Chance?
How many times have we thought, “If I could just Start Over…”
You Can.
Now.
Today.

ReBirth Yourself!
That’s the Gift of this Holiday!
As the buds blossom on the Trees
As the Daffodils pop up with their bright yellow Blossoms
As the World gives way to SpringTime and
As we Awaken this New Day to who we Really Are…
Begin.
Begin Again.

Perhaps you have heard this story as it has made its way around the Internet over the years.
It was first sent to me years ago when the internet was new.
I am just as delighted to read it today as I was to receive it back then.

It is by JAROLDEEN ASPLUND EDWARDS
and I am told it is included in her book, CELEBRATION!

HAPPY EASTER!

The Daffodil Principle
by Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards

Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.

“I will come next Tuesday, ” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.
Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.”

“How far will we have to drive?”

“Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage!”

“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that said, “Daffodil Garden.”

We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn.

“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.”

Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one.”50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun — one bulb at a time — to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time ~ often just one baby-step at a time ~ and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said.

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