Sunday, March 28, 2010

I am Lauren, Easter enthusiast

I love Easter. So much. Everything about it. And this year I've been feeling more enthusiastic than ever. I guess it's because it's finally hit me... how Easter embodies all the things for which I feel so fondly.

First of all, I really love bunny rabbits. I just do. Now, I've been known for my distaste for most animals. Puppies, kitties, horsies... they just don't do it for me... sorry. But I simply can't resist a sweet little bunny rabbit. I even had one once as a kid for a year or so... Snoopy was his name (I was extremely uncreative when it came to naming pets... for example, Change the chameleon, Spot the fish, Sam the dog). I used to take him for walks (or hops?) around the cul-de-sac on his ferret leash. I was devastated when my mom broke the news that Snoopy had been eaten by fire ants... he's now buried in the back yard under a heart-shaped tombstone that I picked out on a visit to Charleston.

I also have a terrible soft spot for lambs. They're the sweetest, no?
And then there's Spring time. For me, Easter equals Spring... in so many ways. When I think of Easter, I recall the warm Spring sunshine and the cool Spring breeze felt when posing, year after year, outside in front of the newly blossomed flowers in my new Easter dress... my glove-clad hands grasping my new Easter basket and stuffed bunny (which the Easter bunny still brings me, to this day) for a photograph that my mother never failed to take... on our way out the door to the all too anticipated Easter Sunday church service.

just before my 4th birthday... moooom not another picture!

a year earlier... there's that enthusiastic grin!
(using favorite baby doll, shelby, as a cushion)

Spring... it's all about newness and life. The flowers bloom. The baby bunnies and chickies and lambies are born. But the true beauty of Easter is that those of us who call ourselves Christians are reminded of the new life that we have all been given through the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God. The events of Easter (resurrection and such) are what a faith in Christ is all about. Victorious... that's the one word that keeps coming to my mind. Such a victorious day.

As for bunnies and egg hunts.... I don't know what that's all about... but I like it... cant help it...