Easter is about hope and rebirth

It is almost Easter. I have already bitten the ears off a hollow chocolate bunny. The rest of the rabbit didn’t last long. It was delicious.

We probably won’t do anything for the holiday.

Now that our parents have all passed away it is becoming more and more difficult to get together. The pandemic is always in the background, hiding behind a giant Easter Bunny like the kind that visits various stores, malls and other places.

When faced with that huge rabbit many children suddenly become shy and hide behind their moms. Meanwhile, their mother is trying to explain that they just need to get a picture so the grandparents will be happy.

When my daughter Beth was little we went with the neighbor lady and her son,Tommy, to an event they called “Breakfast with the Easter Bunny”. There was a magician that both kids liked. Beth refused to eat her breakfast. She ate part of Tommy’s instead and he ate part of hers. So far, so good.

Then they traumatized a real rabbit by letting each and every child pet it. As you can imagine, this took awhile.

The Easter Bunny also stopped by each table. Tommy wanted to talk to the giant creature that was making the rounds.

Beth panicked and hid under the table. Her quivering voice kept asking, “Hurt you? Hurt you?” She decided this must have been my doing and would let the neighbor lady hold her but not me.

The next year we went alone and left before the still scary Easter Bunny got anywhere near us.

I have a couple of pictures of Beth’s children with the Easter Bunny. The one I have stuck to the refrigerator shows three children; one is smiling an obviously fake smile, one is barely putting up with the picture taking process and the third is mad at the world.

These days we have outgrown the need for pictures taken with the scary creature. Instead we scour Facebook for pictures. Today’s offering was a series of photos of grandsons Jacob and Nicholas playing baseball.

Another series was about sliding catches. They had set up something that looked like a Slip and Slide so they would get used to sliding while catching the ball.

We have been down to Texas for Easter a couple of times. Beth usually invites friends and family and anyone else who wants to show up. At some point the adults hide the eggs and the young ones find them. It is fun to watch the older kids point out the eggs to the littlest children without being prompted.

People bring a side dish and at some point we all eat. The crowd gradually disperses at a reasonable time and life goes back to normal. We won’t be going down there for Easter this year. Even though we both have received the vaccine, we are not comfortable going that far away from home yet. This is one of those times when I really do wish we lived a lot closer together.

Easter is about hope and rebirth. It is when the flowers begin to dominate the landscape and the urge to get outside becomes irresistible. The shrubs and trees go about their business of collecting plastic bags and other trash. The wind tries to do a little pruning and leaves small and not-so-small branches strewn across the yard. On the southern end of the country the grandsons play baseball.

I hope your Easter is however you want it to be and that giant bunnies don't terrorize your loved ones this year.