The roses are blooming too...and you can see beyond th tree line that the ridge is greening up real nice towards town...it has been a nice Easter morning...BD is in Long Beach with her Mom for her Birthday (BDs), and I miss her...have spent a lot of time yesterday and today sitting out on the back porch watching the birds (a ton of very, very gold goldfinches are still around...and the hummingbirds are back!) and just looking over towards the lake and the ridge beyond...hope you all have had a very nice Easter...I got up so I could say my Easter prayer at sunrise...hated to miss church, but for quite a while now that hasn't been an attractive option, going to my church I mean...maybe one day...

Been thinking some lately of how things change...Winter to Spring, then to Summer and Fall, then back to Winter. To use a worn cliche, the circle remains unbroken. But when I think of Easter, the circle was broken; ashes to ashes and dust to dust changed that morning into the lynch pin of what has sustained millions of the faithful for ages and ages. For the second time, the circle was broken to make a point of displeasure. This time the event was one of prolonged and intense pain, humiliation, degradation, and ultimately of death as death is known. Yet it wasn't...it was in the end an act of love, of ultimate sacrifice so others would not bear the burden forgiven.

In the grand scope of life overall, I feel small and insignificant today, yet at the same time know I am important and chosen...chosen to enjoy the blessings given me, the opportunities others are not afforded, the miracle of life extended for some of my family, and the bitter sweetness of the death of a loved one only to enhance the memories of him to become over time even more comforting and delicious. I am fortunate to know the love of a woman who loves me for what I am and have been, and promise to continue to be. I am fortunate to know the love of a family who has protected me in times when others would injure me. I am fortunate to know the truth of absolute friendship of a handful of close friends that, even when they disagree with me and for a time wonder at my behavior, never waiver in their support of me. And I am fortunate that with a thought from my heart, my God answers my pleas.

I am sure others have the same friends, family, and, though perhaps with a different name, the same God to whom they surrender their lives from time to time when their worldly choices seem inadequate to meet the trials they face. And I am sure they have the same sense of peace and comfort I have each and every day knowing that those that love me, even in times of dismay and confusion, still do, and those that question me at least respect me in the challenge. I hope that others feel the same sense of certainty as do I that the next time the circle of being is broken, I will be there to see the homecoming where long lost relatives and friends will beckon me with open arms and smiling eyes wet with tears of joy. Today, on this holiest of holy days, I feel that certainty bone deep. And I will call it up as a request for others on those days that I weep for those lost, those hurt, and those less fortunate than I as others have done for me countless times in the past. In light of that aspect of this day, I participate in making sure the circle, at least for now, is indeed unbroken.