Weird Easter
Like many of you, this Easter was unlike celebrations in the past.
The week prior to Easter, if you found yourself in the stores looking for treats for Easter baskets, you were probably either shopping with a mask on, or surrounded by people with masks on. I realize that in some parts of the world, where the population is very dense, and the pollution is very high, walking around with a mask on is normal daily protocol. But here, in the United States, this just isn’t so. In fact, in the past if you were in a store and someone entered with a mask on, you probably thought the store was being robbed.
Luckily, most Easter baskets require tasty treats of chocolate bunnies, peanut butter cups, marshmallow peeps, and other assorted gifts. Could you imagine if the normal Easter basket consisted of toilet paper, paper towels, and Lysol wipes? There would be a lot of empty baskets out there.
For so many people, Easter meant dressing up in your finest and attending the very special Easter service. The services this year looked quite different. The family gathered around the computer monitor and watched an online service. There was no hugging and well-wishing with the congregation after service. There were no donuts and coffee being offered, unless you supplied them yourself in your own kitchen.
Easter is often a holiday where the family gathers together, many times this is family members you may only see a few times a year. This is our family, Easter and Christmas are the two holidays that the extended family gets together, we exchange stories and tales of what’s been happening since Christmas, we promise to get together more often (doesn’t usually happen).
But this year was spent with just the three of us, my husband, my dog, and myself. We took a walk, watched a movie, and took a nap. It didn’t feel like Easter, it didn’t look like Easter, I didn’t even eat a chocolate bunny! It all just felt weird, were it any other Sunday, I wouldn’t have given it a thought, but it wasn’t any other Sunday, it was Easter Sunday and I didn’t put on makeup, wore old leggings that resemble pajamas more that fashionable workout attire, and didn’t leave the house. I take that back, we did leave the house to make an exchange with our daughter. We got some paper towels she needed, and she scored some Lysol wipes we needed. We drove by and made the quick exchange, felt like I was making some undercover drug deal. One of her neighbors even came running out inquiring where we ‘scored’ the paper towels!
Don’t take this wrong, I’m not sitting here dwelling on the injustice, unfairness of it all, in fact I’m grateful we’re doing well and healthy. We have paper products, Lysol wipes, and food.
But I am sitting here reflecting on the strangeness, the weirdness of it all. If someone had asked us last Easter, what do you think you will be doing a year from now? I don’t think any of us could have predicted that we would be hunkering down in our respective homes, avoiding crowds and even our own family members (I admit that we avoid family members on occasion, but it is our choice, not forced on us).
Times our weird, our Easter was weird, and the longer I stay quarantined in my home, the weirder I may get (that could be saying a lot)!
Looking forward to seeing everyone (sans mask) in the hopefully near future.
Namaste~
