Our lives are like the Universe and Creation. Like them, there is always something breaking out or unfolding in our lives. We are not static! For many, the Easter celebration is about new life emerging from the old. Is there an “Easter gift” in thinking about new life, new possibility, breaking out in your life?
Happiness research reveals many of us think that new variety and activity will make us happier. The research shows that most of us get great satisfaction and enjoyment from returning to something familiar. Is this because you and I are hard-wired to be grounded?
Being grounded doesn’t mean I’m resistant to change. In fact, being grounded makes it possible to be alive and open to new life, new insights, and new possibilities emerging in my life.
My friend Kay emailed me this week to say, How do I get my Easter back? I really don’t want it to be colored eggs and bunnies. I have always used the time working in my yard as a reflecting time. As I worked in the yard I was giving thanks for the blessing of new life in my flowers and yard. She answered her own question! Instead of looking back to the past, she discovered an answer among the living things in her garden. She is literally grounded in the experience of the dirt of the earth!
Knowing what grounds us is like preparing the soil for planting. Knowing who I am grounds me. Practicing mindfulness each day grounds me. Finding delight in the course of every day is grounding. Values of compassion and love center and draw me into new possibilities. You probably have your own pathways of grounding.
The Easter image of a tomb empty and open is a life-giving invitation to think about your own life. Like stones used to seal a tomb, most of us build self-fulfilling enclosures around our lives. We use them to keep ourselves away from experiencing new life – “I can’t do that!” Old ghosts, words of reprimand, addiction to an old image of self all conspire to keep us from new creation in us. Perhaps what was once erected for self-protection has no purpose now? You probably have your own list of the bricks which make up your enclosure!
In some traditions, Easter is called the “eighth day of creation”. It imagines that old patterns, old cycles can be broken, stepped beyond! Most of us take small steps towards new life, new possibilities. It’s not about abandoning the past or ignoring our life story. For some of us, each step is like a dance or walking on a labyrinth. Each step builds on the previous one, making way for what follows. Each small step is cause for celebration!
Perhaps the gift inherent in Easter is a “Wake Up” call to become fully alive? The things which ground us become pathways to new life. Nothing of the past or present is wasted. Each step invites us into the new emerging from the ground of our life. “Wake Up” to what invites attention!
Robert V. Taylor – Saying Yes to Your Own Life
