Greetings once again, my friends and fellow bloggers. And Happy Easter, to all. And for those of you who don't recognize Easter, then Happy Sunday to you. Easter is a special holiday for me, and as a tradition in my family, Easter has been the most important of our holidays. My sisters and I and our cousins were still engages in the Easter morning egg hunts even into our later 20s. Of course, by that time, we stopped hiding eggs and hid bottles of beer. Nothing quite like the family tradition of painting up bottles of beer in festive pastel colors. But I digress.

I was thinking about Easter today, sort of nostalgically. I will take the day off tomorrow to spend the day in rest and reflection. Traditionally, I would also part-take in what I had given up for Lent - beer, meat, coffee, soda, hot sauce...whatever it was that particular year. This year, I'll be alone for the first time in many, many years...not since 1997. I will have a lot to think about. And while, I believe, Easter is as much about reflection as it is about celebration, I think too that there are many aspects of Easter that lend a direction towards hope and renewal. From a strictly religious stand point, Easter marks the day of the Christ resurrection, and in so, our salvation, the potential of which is our responsibility to live up to. In salvation, I mean the acceptance of God's grace. What message speaks of hope and renewal more than salvation? Even if that salvation is merely symbolic or unmet potential, it still points to a future of hope. Each new day's light brings with it the promises of that potential.

Secondly, as Easter falls in the emergence of spring, I think to there is a combined symmetry between the renewal and rebirth of spring and the resurrection story of Easter. Lent, as I wrote about before, is about sacrifice; Easter is about the fruits of that sacrifice.

Another reason I love Easter is because I love bunnies. So much as been said and written about the pagan symbolism of the rabbit and the egg, but that takes none of my love or appreciation away from the holiday and its symbolism. Both rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility and each speaks of spring time and rebirth.

And, of course, can we really have a valid, inclusive discussion of Easter without mentioning chocolate? I think not. And while I will eat every little chocolate tomorrow, I will savor the taste I will have. Dark chocolate, 80% Cocoa. Yummy. Strangely enough, though, I don't eat chocolate bunnies. Too cute. Can't do it.

And tomorrow I will light a candle for those I miss, I will say my prayers, and with a cold beer, I will toast to my family, I will toast to god, and I will raise my beer and toast to you all. May you find some happiness...and maybe some eggs...tomorrow.