Easter Rises Again

Today, I have Risen Again.
As have you, if you're reading this.
But you see where I'm heading...


As Easter Sunday approaches, I'd like to reflect, for just a moment, on a few thoughts. Between the parades, bar hopping costume parties, glorified sex & fertility symbols of rabbits & eggs, and the mind-numbing avalanche of religious & media blitzkrieg, there is/was some meaning to this.

In an effort to appease his newly adopted Christians, and satisfy the local Paganry, Constantine cleverly married the Birth of Christ celebration to the Spring Fertility rights, and viola!
Easter, renamed from Ishtar.
(The goddess, not that long-assed, boring movie)

Anyway, it's a spiritual time for many, and for a wide variety of reasons.
The fact that humans remain staunchly, & sometimes violently, opposed to the reasons of others, sort of diminishes all of us, and certainly the belief systems involved, which generally suggest that We Are Better Than That.

Upon closer examination, this is where it starts to get complicated.   

Rather than go down that particular rabbit hole (clever alert), as it has no bottom & very little sensible illumination, I choose to offer up my own simple observations, taught to me by the Voice In My Head;

Love Each Other;
There is a little bit of you in everybody, and a little bit of everybody else in you. This takes thought, understanding, tolerance & the acceptance that some people don't want it and prefer to be complete assholes, much like Congress.
Love them, anyway, but from a safe distance. This will cause large amounts of love to pass through you, even if it is discarded by others, making you a much happier person. Please don't confuse actual love with possession and/or control. They are as far apart as fire & ice.

Forgive;
It has been said that some people are worthy of forgiveness, and some are not (I see you Dick Cheney). I really couldn't say. But I think that each of us is worthy of living a life free from anger & hate, whenever possible. Forgiveness is about letting go of these things. To my experience, this also makes for a happier & easier life. Thinking of the cause of these events as lessons, rather than punishable acts, has taught me much, but nothing as important as the sense of freedom when I learned to begin to let them go.

Share;
There is more than enough for all of us. There really is. We do not suffer from a shortage of anything, when you come right down to it. There is certainly existing technology to manage any shortfalls, and enough existing to spread around. We suffer from an addiction to money, power & profit.
Were we to trade this system in on the Spirit of Co-operation & Sharing, we would live in a much happier world.

Respect Life;
From the tiny microbes that live in the deepest recesses (like your intestines) to the whispers of oxygen & hydrogen the caress the edge of space, far from our earthly ground, there is life. We are but a traveling road show species in the collective Living World. And not a very good one at that.
Giving back to this Living World, healing & nurturing along the way, we will find a clear path to our own lives, a destiny of co-operation, rather than extinction, and the awareness to adapt to a rapidly changing planet, known for it's repeated ice ages and continental drifts.

Breathe;
The Cosmos is all around us, always & forever. We see it's antiquated light streaming at us from lost eons, and measure it's spin, save it's fallen stones, examine it's celestial bodies.
But do we really know each other?
The Consciousness of the Universe permeates all things. It exists everywhere existence is. You will not find it by searching the Physical Realm.
So sit down.
Rest a spell.
Close your eyes and exhale, pushing out the air from the bottom of your lungs, until they feel empty. Slowly fill them, until they feel as though they would burst, and exhale again. Do this repeatedly and slowly.
Picture a shiny bubble of emptiness in the center of your head. Let it grow, pushing away all errant thoughts; keep at this, until it is firmly there, outside thoughts abated. Look into the shiny bubble...
And there, no matter how distant or faint, is Consciousness.
The part of you that connects to All Consciousness.
Make friends, why doncha?
There are no commercials, no peer pressure, no spin doctors...
Just you, the Gateway to the Entire Universe, having a look see.

I sincerely hope that this brings you as least as much entertainment as a Mexican wicker basket filled with plastic grass from China and some chocolate flavored candy stamped out by machines.

Happy Easter.

LD - 2013