Hello Everone!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and are staying healthy! It seems very strange to celebrate Easter during this Pandemic. Or really to celebrate anything. But in reality I feel like celebrations of miracles and life are super important during dark times like what we are going through now as long as everyone stays inside and celebrates in their homes. Anyway, before we get too far into talking about Easter, I want to talk about the pieces I published this past week. Last Sunday, I published a Weekly Blog about Recognizing Misinformation and how to be a better consumer of information on the internet. It was a lengthy Weekly Blog, but it’s full of good information about misinformation on the internet and gave tips on how we can all recognize misinformation. If that’s something that interests you, I highly recommend doing it. On Wednesday, I published a Poem titled “Dark Clouds Forming.” It’s a return to form with a nature based poem but it also holds deeper themes of finding peace when the world is dark and scary. Maybe that’s a message you need to hear right now. Finally, on Friday, I published a Writing Prompt Piece titled “Stolen Relic.” A downtrodden thief is desperate for a score so they end up breaking into a church and steals a rare relic in the form of a brass ring. Unfortunately they get more than they expected when the ring begins talking to them. It’s more of a beginning of a story than a full thing, but it sets up a very interesting story which I might revisit sometime in the future. We’ll see. If you are new or missed out on any of those pieces, I hope you spend some time reading them.
Even though today is Easter Sunday, this is probably one of the strangest Easter Sundays I remember. The ongoing pandemic has everything shut down including churches. There won’t be huge Easter services, there won’t be community wide Easter Egg Hunts, and families won’t be able to get together to celebrate together. I know that my extended family usually gets together for Easter, but this year we resorted to getting together on a Zoom Call so we could all catch up and see each other. The world is a strange place and the fact that Easter is happening as usual makes it even stranger. Now many of you on here might not be affected that much. Maybe you are not religious or just not a Christian so you don’t go to church on Easter Sunday. No judgement, but today is probably just another day of quarantine for you. For others, Easter is a big day. Maybe the biggest day of the year for Christianity. Christmas seems like the obvious answer and many people feel like Christmas is the bigger day because it symbolizes the day that Jesus Christ was born. But the week of Easter (or Holy Week) celebrates Jesus being crucified on the Cross, lying dead in the tomb, and then coming back from the dead. It’s about Jesus sacrificing himself for our sins, dying, and then defeating death. That’s very powerful stuff.Even though people won’t be able to gather together in cathedrals or churches to celebrate Easter together, we can all celebrate in our own homes. We can praise God and celebrate the life of Jesus.
For me during this dark and concerning times, it’s comforting to hear a story of life and resurrection. Just imagine for a second that you are one of Jesus’ disciples that have been around to see Jesus perform miracles. He’s healed the blind, fed 4,000 people with just seven loaves of bread and a few fish, calmed raging seas, and even raised the dead. But when one of your closest friends, Judas, betrays Jesus, he is taken away by Roman soldiers and crucified. Jesus suffered on the cross bearing the sins of the world and he dies. That Saturday must have one of the worst days of their lives. The person they thought to be savior of the world and God incarnate was dead. But then Easter Sunday comes and they witness another miracle. Jesus comes back from the dead! There is a resurgence of light and joy in the world. That’s something that really speaks to me. Right now it’s dark and it’s scary, but eventually the light and hope will come again. We just have to have faith and also wash our hands, self-quarantine, and stop the spread of illness. But you know what I mean. A message of conquering the darkness and a world full of new hope makes me feel better about what we are going through now.
Again, no matter if you celebrate or not, or how you are celebrating today, I hope you enjoy it. I know that I’m going to be spending some time celebrating with my immediate family as well as spending some time in Animal Crossing. I don’t want to miss out on all the fun of Bunny Day!
Thank you all for your support and I hope you have a wonderful week!
-Allen_The_Writer
Header Photo Credit to Northeast Ohio Parent
https://www.northeastohioparent.com/magazine/easter-spring-events-northeast-ohio/
Allen The Writer 