Inner Easter

Spring seems fleeting in its newness. Easter seems eternal in its love. Together they wake us up to the celebration and the obligation of ever-renewing, limitless love in our relationships to others.

Easter is the time each year when we renew and further deepen our relationship to love and death through contemplating

inwardly celebrating a final feast with our dearest companions,
inwardly surrendering our will to suffering and death as sacrifice to others,
inwardly forgiving,
inwardly descending into hell to redeem and release, and
inwardly resurrecting to a new life.

To inspire our feeling pictures as we seek new life and creative nuance in our relationship to Easter, we can turn to art. Listen to some great Easter music, read or write great Easter poetry, or look at or make great Easter paintings or sculptures. Let the art be yeast bubbling up in the sweet warmth of your heart. What feelings arise in you? Are they new feelings about the Christ Mystery? Do they give you a new illuminating sense of who you are and what you are capable of offering?

It seems strange to write this, but the blessings of the technology, means that I can turn my mechanical laptop into an inspiring altar. I can download Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on itunes and play it while reading and speaking outloud Rilke’s beautiful poem “The Last Supper” and then listen to Judy Collins singing “Morning Has Broken” while gazing at the Isenheim Altarpiece.

And then, I can close my eyes and let my feelings open up to what lives in my heart as the art of my soul.

• Tenderness

Just this morning in a conversation with a dear friend the word “tenderness” was spoken. Tenderness. I knew immediately that that word had been placed into the conversation so that I might realize and share that the mood of Easter is tenderness, calm, resilient tenderness. As you meditate, listen, see, penetrate, imagine Inner Easter, do so with tenderness.

• Revisiting To Be Surprised

Last year on my blog, I shared some intimate ways to see the Easter mysteries and meanings reflected in your own life. I included audios. I’ve reread what I wrote and relistened to what I spoke. The perspectives and questions surprised me and challenged me in new ways. So I have put the links here. Revisit the blogs, download the audios and spend some time with them over these days of Easter. I hope you will share my surprise and uncover new layers of personal meaning.

Please go to the blog and leave your Easter comments to inspire the rest of us.

Lynn Jericho writes, teaches, mentors, counsels and guides from a wisdom inspired by Waldorf Education and Rudolf Steiner. Known for her warmth and creativity, she makes sense of the complexities of the developing soul. Her Inner Christmas messages are read by more than 8000 people around the world and her book, Six Ways to Celebrate Christmas and Celebrate You, brings new understanding to the cosmic, social and personal meanings of the holiday.  Lynn was a cofounder of a birthing center and a pioneer parent of the Waldorf School of Princeton. Her newest adventure is being a grandmother.