Easter

I apologize for not posting yesterday; it was the first day of our Spring Break. If this alone doesn't explain things, I will say that I spent the hours between 7-10 pm eating my kids' Easter candy to the point where I have to go out and buy more. I spent the hours between 7am and 7pm trying to figure out what I am going to do with my kids next week when Philadelphia, along with Washington D.C., plays host to every eighth grader in the country.

Since middle schoolers will be climbing up, down, and around the Liberty Bell and every other point of interest in the city for the next 7 days, my friend suggested a different kind of "staycation:" we would check ourselves and our 6 combined children into a local hotel with an indoor pool for the night, and let our offspring swim until they collapse with exhaustion or throw up from ingesting too much chlorinated water, whatever comes first.

I liked that idea immensely and began calling for reservations. The vast majority of hotels were booked to the brim with eighth graders, the ones that weren't failed to meet our other requisite: they didn't offer complimentary continental breakfasts.

By 3pm, my friend and I gave up hope and went our separate ways; my friend took her girls to a movie and out to dinner at their favorite restaurant; I took my kids to the Good Friday Celebration at the Methodist church that houses my sons' preschool.

I learned a lot of things in my two hours at the Methodist church, including the fact that almost any household object with a straight edge can be fashioned into a cross. We made crosses out of uncooked spaghetti noodles and stacked sugar cubes. For dessert, we had cupcakes with pretzel stick crosses protruding from their centers. Everyone was beyond friendly and everything was very well planned...and delicious.

As I folded up tables and stacked chairs at the conclusion of the event, I thought about how different, and yet similar this church is from my own. The women's group at this church is making school kits for children in Peru; we are sending ours to Africa. This church is making hundreds of mosquito netting bed covers for orphanages in the Congo; a few months ago, our youth group renovated a park in downtown Philadelphia. Looking at the bulletin boards in this church--covered with solicitations for quilts and receiving blankets, for old washing machines and spare change to feed the homeless, help a struggling family who lost their home in a fire, or comfort a forgotten child--reminded me that my church isn't the only one doing good deeds in the world. There are thousands of religious organizations from all denominations and faiths who are actively engaged in helping others and, in many cases, are doing it better and more often than we are.

I am so proud to live in this great country and this wonderful world, where so many people are using their freedom to do good. The spirit of Easter is EVERYWHERE. It's taken me 32 years, but finally I got it.


****
P.S. Today (Saturday, April 11) is the last day to get your discounted swimsuit from Modbe Clothing. After today, you can still buy a swimsuit, but you won't have the satisfaction of justifying your purchase by telling everyone that you got it on sale.