Happy Easter to All! I am so thankful for this day; it truly is the foundation of our faith. Without Jesus, his life, his death, and his resurrection, where would we be? What would we be? Every Good Friday, my heart experiences a strange heaviness. The day itself is usually overcast and drizzly. Saturday seems to follow the same pattern, but Sunday always bursts forth with sunshine and celebration. As a child, I truly thought that God purposefully made the weather downcast on the two days preceding Easter. In my mind, God was remembering those days long ago when His Son became the sacrificial Lamb. His tears were the rain, His sighs were the wind. Come Sunday, creation itself could not contain the joy of Resurrection. The day is cleanly bright, warm and welcoming. It is Easter, and I am thankful.
Alas, this Easter weekend, we experienced our own brush with the reality of nature, the circle of life, and potential easter bunny disaster. Our little family of three traveled to Uncle Jason's house, Patrick's brother. The Sams' siblings met at this central location along with their kids ages 19 months to high school. We arrived Friday evening and had the always delicious American supper of hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, and chips. This meal is always so comforting and loved by all ages. The menfolk conveniently slipped upstairs and succumbed to the powerful playstation 3; the girls and teenagers stretched out on comfy sofas and overstuffed chairs, playing "would you rather", laughing hysterically to the point of wheezing, and catching snippets of tv. These moments are always precious to me; the laughter of family can never be replicated by anyone else. This laughter is truly healing and makes family bonds stronger.
Saturday morning came all too quickly. Little Jonah was up at 7am, chattering "DaddEEE" and "Uh-OH" for no reason. Patrick took it upon himself to wake everyone up, despite the late night prior. In his mind, we only get together a few times a year, so we better make the most of it. While waking up downstairs, sipping coffee and tea, Patrick noticed one of the dogs was "playing" with something in the backyard. He casually asked what the dog had, not thinking it could be anything concerning. "Oh, (insert dog's name here, not posted to protect the innocent), has lots of toys in the backyard." To Patrick's scientific eye, this looked more like a real animal than a toy. The brave brothers rushed outside to survey the toy/animal, and the adults followed.
To our dismay, four baby bunnies had been affectionately "played" with by the two dogs. The nest had been built under the deck, but it was still quite open to the yard and not near a corner. In my mommy heart, I felt that this probably wasn't the wisest choice of home location for the bunnies. One bunny hopped to heaven that morning, and the three bunnies that remained were probably having a near-death experience. Out of the three, one had a laceration that was quite deep. According to Dr. Patrick, if we had a suture kit, we could have fixed it. Where, oh where, was my "doctor" bag? The other two were not visibly harmed, but I believe there may be therapy involved in the future. The traumatized bunnies were lovingly placed in a towel-lined box and taken to the vet.
I toyed with the idea of taking one home to nurse back to health, but since Tucker was rabidly running through the yard searching for more bunnies, I decided that would most likely mean certain bunny heaven for that unfortunate one. We were all slightly disturbed from this nature channel moment, and none of the smaller kids found out about it. It was quite the feat to keep them inside during the rescue; we didn't want to scare them or open the floodgates of "why?" questions.
As we sat around the table at breakfast, we each quietly pondered the morning events. We asked ourselves why it was so unsettling, and we remembered the gift and fragility of life. On a lighter note, we laughed about the near extinction of the easter bunny for future generations. I know, it sounds horrible, but we were dealing with a somewhat difficult situation and used humor to lighten the mood.
Thus ends the tale of our Easter bunnies. My family of three left that evening to return to our beds at home, and we were so exhausted that our Easter was spent doing absolutely nothing but being together. I did miss going to church, dressing in the set-apart designated Easter outfit, and celebrating with others while singing the beloved Easter songs; however, Easter isn't just one day a year. Celebrate the hope of Easter every day, and remember the Cross.
Love to you and your families!!
HOPPY EASTER!
