A Joyful Easter

A lot of holidays are best celebrated in venerated historical tradition, complete with social gathering, requisite ritual, and more often than not, copious amounts of rich food. Other times, through the guaranteed approach of a calendar date alone, holidays can serve as simple but compelling landmarks for events completely unrelated.

Reflecting now from the relative comfort of April, I have my own perspective, but I suspect many might agree when I say: it has, for reasons most broad, been one harrowing, onerous, inexorable, bitch of a winter. And it dragged on. Even this much anticipated transition into spring, that we always imagine as bright and abrupt (though it never really is), has seemed unfairly riddled with pranks by a reluctant Old Man Winter. Just yesterday, flurries swirled around the house in Vermont... the dusting of wet white snow was enough to dampen spring-bound spirits... but it didn't last. And sure as the return of red-breasted robins, wee peepers, and mud - neither has this dreadful winter.

So here's to a joyful Easter - and an elated welcome to spring. And here's to patience, perseverance, and acceptance - because progress isn't always a linear forward march, so much as a series of advances and setbacks that eventually lands you in daffodils.