Easter and Passover are celebrations that include rituals. They were created to help us find good ways to live our precious lives.

In the story of Passover, the angel of death “passes over” the faithful Jews. They paint a symbol of death, blood over the doors, which tells the angel to pass over their homes.

Passover reminds us there is tragedy in the world. Life is not fair. No matter what we do, bad things happen. We don’t always know what to do, and even when we know what to do, misfortune happens.
This is how life works on this planet, and it has always worked this way.

There is always an angel of death passing over our heads. Sometimes she does not pass over, she stops on our doorstep. Illness, betrayal, loss and death come to us. And when that angel of misfortune and death stops at our door, we grieve. It is hard to live at these times.

Then.....when the dust of loss, betrayal, or death settles, it is time for Easter. Easter reminds us to begin again. It is a simple message, sometimes it is hard to hear, but when our hearts have been broken, when we need healing, when we do not know what to do, we must remember there will be a time to begin again.

Passover reminds us that life is capricious, precious and temporary. Easter reminds that after all loss, we can begin again. This pattern is in our bones, it is in every tree, every growing sapling. Every Spring we see life beginning again, no matter how severe the Winter has been.

In the mud, in the cold rain, the buds are growing green. The light is changing. Life is beginning again.
For us too, we can begin again.