Tag — Spring Equinox
Our Easter Tree
Cross-posted at BlogHer.com.
Easter is coming! Have you been meaning to do something, well, meaningful with your children, but haven’t quite got around to it? There’s still time to do a creative project, and you can probably do it with stuff you already have laying around.
A few years ago our soulcare community was searching for away to celebrate the season. Since we consisted of people of all (and no) faiths, we needed something flexible. What we came up with is the Easter Tree. It’s a chance to express gratitude for the Spring; remember the life and teachings of Jesus; and/or to make something pretty that shouts “Next year, Jerusalem!” Here’s how you can do it to:
Supplies
A large vase or bucket.
Several tree branches (if you pick something like a cherry branch, it might bloom!)
Scrap ribbon or yarn
magazines
origami, construction, wrapping paper, etc.
glue sticks
scissors
whatever crafty stuff you have lying about.
Put the branches in your vase or bucket. We’ve sometimes used a galvanized bucket with pebbles for ballast. Add water to encourage blossoming.
Spread out all the supplies on the table and invite people to make an ornament that commemorates whatever aspect of the season they wish to celebrate.
Decorate your tree!
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Because our tradition is primarily Christian, we like to set our tree up at the beginning of Lent. Then throughout the season we look at one ornament each night at dinner. If it represent some story about Jesus, we look it up and read it to the kids. On Good Friday I clear everything off the tree. But Easter morning all the ornaments are back again along with colorful ribbons. The girls have really come to look forward to our Easter Tree, and it’s a welcome family tradition.
When we celebrate with our interfaith community, a lot of the ornaments are expressions of thanksgiving for the Spring. In that case, we go around the dinner table and share what we are thankful for in the new season.
How will you celebrate the rich and vibrant season with your children?
Yoga Poses for Mama Earth
We’ve had various kinds of celebrations for Spring over the years. But I have always hoped to have a gathering for May Day—or what the Celts call Beltane—in celebration of the good earth. In my dreamy gathering we could stand on some patch of soft ground and use our bodies to say ‘thank you’ to Mama and to give her some honor.
So far, this hasn’t come to pass. I tried once, and my children totally derailed me, moving the evening from a night of Om-ing barefoot in the grass, to a night of painting toenails for the upcoming sandal season. Apparently, when you are 4 and 6 it’s way more fun to welcome the Spring with flip-flops and pink polish than to follow your breath while holding a backbend.
Now that I’m here in Denmark and far away from all my friends of the feminine divine, this little dream isn’t likely to come to past anytime soon. But this morning while I was hanging out in Shavasana, it came into my monkey mind that I could get one step closer to this dream by writing the series down. (You know, instead of just holding it in my head and hoping someone will invite me to teach yoga.)
An hour later when I sat down to write my BlogHer editorial about Earth Day, I realized that if I posted said yoga series perhaps, in some small way, we might all be connected just by doing the same practice—even if it is in different times and different places. We are all standing on this same round earth, this big blue marble, right? We might as well call it a party.
So here is my short series of Yoga Poses for Mama, from me, the wannabe priestess, to you my sister friends. May they connect your spirit to the creative, nurturing energy of sand and soil, sea and sky, meadow and mountain. Namaste! [Read more →]
