Easter contradictions

Hello friends. Happy Easter. We all celebrate this day and its meanings in different ways. When I surfed around on Twitter this evening, I was struck by the great variety of ways people experience Easter: egg hunts, family dinners, church, candy, long walks, long naps. Every individual seems to experience the 24 hours of Easter in a unique way.

My entry tonight will NOT be a diatribe on Easter's "real" meaning; mostly because I don't think Easter has one perfect, absolute "real" meaning. Instead, I will just take a moment to express my own gratitude.

Jesus' resurrection from the dead mystifies me. It leaves me speechless. Sometimes I feel a little twinge of skepticisim. In so many ways, 'rising on the third day' does not make sense. It is beyond sense. And I live the majority of my days attempting to achieve a lifestyle centered around what is fully sensible. Easter stands in opposition to my daily attempts at a predictable, routined way of living.

And this is why I love Easter. Easter puts me in my place. On this day, God says, "Emily, wake up! Life is more than following the rules. I defy the rules! And I do it so that all you silly, crazy, selfish, amazing humans can live a different kind of life. A life without fear."

I love Easter. And I love that today, just like every other day, people throughout the world are living and breathing in the mysteries of a world that is forever grounded in the most beautiful contradiction: death = life.