Every year, on Easter morning we take our children to Oak Canyon Nature Reserve; the
woodsy piece of preserved land that we were married in. As we walk the dirt and oak leaf covered trail, we talk about the new life that is growing all around and within us. We stop and marvel at the vibrant green of new shoots emerging from stalks, the butterfly floating by or the wildflowers emerging to face the sun.
We share age appropriate stories of Christ and myths, to illuminate the themes of renewed hope and personal rebirth.
Our children tolerate this ‘teaching’ for a few minutes, then run off and embody the new life that emerges within them daily. They pick up sticks and sword fight, they chase each other through bushes and beg us to play tag.
Last week as we camped with dear friends in Carpinteria, I noticed something similar. The adults enjoyed sitting in camp chairs, staring at the beauty of the ocean, breathing in its salty freshness, and remarked on the inspiration and connection we feel in its presence.
Meanwhile, the children were fully engaged with each other and the natural setting peripheral. They did not sit and admire nature. They dug their hands in the sand, jumped in the waves, rolled around in the creek, embarked on sand throwing ‘wars’ (no matter how much we tried to warn them about the pain of sand in the eyes). They jump into life unafraid.
It is as though, we are reminded of the life within us by reflecting on the life around us, while our children are full of awareness of the budding life within them, pulsing, vibrating to come out and be expressed, explored. If there is nature to be experienced, it is to be thrown up in the air, at each other, to be run through or played in….boundless life emerging and engaging moment by moment. No one needs to give them an Easter message about renewed life, they simply are life, renewing every moment.
This Easter, as I contemplate the parts of me that have died away, must die away, be released and those that are being rekindled and reborn….I am inspired by children’s full engagement with life…and am also asking, “How does my daily life express full engagement with rebirth? Renewal? Living into the richness of spring and new beginnings? How can I allow myself to play into this glorious world with the freedom and connecting instinct of a child?”
Immediately my soul delights and says, “More time in the garden, more time dancing, more time creating!”
What does your life loving soul say?
As we allow our souls to play and engage with the renewed life born of this season, we will naturally find ourselves more connected within and with our children who speak the embodied language of life.