by Noella Noelophile®
During my growing-up years, Easter was always a time of celebration.
My family would travel to my grandmother’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, to spend the week.
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The weather was chilly but beautiful. Robins hopped around the backyard. Violets bloomed in profusion. The neighbors had a greenhouse, filled with hyacinths, daffodils and tulips. One of those somehow, mysteriously, always wound up on my grandmother’s front porch on Easter morning.
And it was a time of bustling activity. We’d hurry off to the local shopping center for new everything: shoes, hats, sometimes new suits or dresses. Everyone wanted to look their best for Easter Sunday morning church services.
Easter 2020 is unprecedented, for all of us.
With the coronavirus pandemic, scary news is a daily occurrence. Grocery deliveries take on a Christmas-morning status. Walking away from someone as you say “hello” is now considered the polite thing to do!
And of course, we’re all isolated–but not alone.
I’m loving the ways people are using their creativity to celebrate their holiday–and get through the pandemic.
Neighbors are printing and coloring eggs for a “virtual Easter egg hunt”. Kids walk around the neighborhood and see how many they can spot. One neighbor even painted rocks to look like Easter eggs, and put them on her front lawn!
Sidewalk chalk paintings are showing up in our neighborhood on a regular basis. One very talented neighbor has drawn Spring flowers in her driveway. A number of our younger residents have drawn rainbows and “Miss you, see you soon!” messages.
And we laughed out loud, recently. One neighbor has a huge whimsical sculpture of a dinosaur on his lawn. When we walked by a few days ago, it was wearing a mask–like the rest of us! (No word yet on whether it’s wearing bunny ears, for today!)
It seems that a crisis brings out both the best and the worst of human nature. The creativity is all of us, at our best.
Happy Easter! We will get through this, together.