This week I indulged in something I have not done in years. I bought a new Easter dress. I know, I know. You may think I am giving into the crass commercialism of another religious holiday by “buying stuff”. I view it however as much more than that. I feel as though I have something in common with Lazarus.
I have not had a new Easter dress in years, rationalizing that my dresses or outfits that I wore to church services were just fine. In fact, this is the first new dress I have bought in quite a while. I have become a fan of thrift stores and vintage wear. I love a bargain and it pains me to pay full price for a piece of clothing, knowing that it was made over seas by someone who only earned a pittance to sew it. I grew up wearing my older sister’s hand me downs but one thing my parents always made sure of was that we each had a new Easter outfit of our own for Easter Sunday from hat to shoes. Many Easter Sunday’s the weather being temperamental, I would have to wear my old winter coat over my new Easter dress, that went with my Easter shoes and Easter purse and Easter socks, and Easter hat!
Styles change, time passes, and other things take precedence. Like mortgage payments, doctor bills, brake shoes and so on. But with time, life has a way of catching up with you and if you don’t stop to celebrate the little things and give thanks and spend out as Gretchen Rubin calls it in The Happiness Project, you become a drudge. And you miss out on joy.
After what seems like a long cold winter in Texas with cold snaps in the single digits, the land that I love is coming back to life; with a vigor. The trees are bedecked in their new green lacy dresses and spring wildflowers are peeking out where ever a lawnmower has not found them. Bluebonnets, buttercups, Indian paintbrushes, primroses, winecups and wild daisies of every color imaginable are dotting the landscapes. The breezes are blowing warm, sometimes gusty with strong Texas thunderstorms, and that makes it even more thrilling!
My daughter commented that she heard the hummingbirds the other day, so I quickly filled my hummingbird feeder and hung it on the back porch and within ten minutes had a male ruby throat hummer drinking greedily from it.
It’s as if Life has been breathed back into the earth after being asleep for so many months of cold, colorless winter.
I have so much to be thankful for this year. I am celebrating another year of my husband being cancer free. My children are happy and healthy. I am blessed.
In John 11: 44 Jesus said to the crowd after he had raised Lazarus from the dead, “Take off the grave-clothes and let him go”. I imagine that Lazarus got a really cool robe.
Tags: celebrations, Commericialism, Easter, Jesus, Joy
