My Personal Embrace of Easter

Easter holds two personal significances for me. First, it is a constant reminder that Jesus Christ made a major sacrifice on our behalf that resonates long after His Resurrection from His death on the cross. After countless times of reading about the passion of Jesus Christ and the horrific brutality he endured, it still saddens me when I try to “humanly” comprehend how people could mistreat others with unthinkable cruelty and feel no remorse. I understand the spiritual purpose why Jesus became the sacrificial Lamb, but amid my humbleness and gratefulness, playing out this scene during Holy Week is still very painful to me.

My second reason is that my mother passed away on Easter Sunday 2003. The way I manage to find peace with her passing, especially on this Holy Day, is knowing that she became a part of the Renaissance, the Rebirth, a new beginning and a greater Divine purpose in a different realm. Although I still experience periodical moments of sadness pierced by a maternal void that runs so deep, I am reminded that the life I live, the work I do and the heart I have will speak for me one day. When that day of my transition arrives, I want to be certain that I did not waste precious moments on frivolousness, foolishness and selfishness.

Yet, in my moments of sadness over these personal significant Easter Holy Day meanings, I find an unbelievable amount of joy, peace, happiness, gentleness and love that keeps me pressing forward to my higher calling; to be the servant that God purposed me to be and not what man thinks I should be.

I realize that many people perceive, embrace and celebrate Easter quite differently than I do. For me, Easter is not a matter of a basket, bunny or an egg, but a matter of the heart…my heart. So, in celebration of this worthy, historical and sacred commemoration, I wish all of you a very Happy Easter!

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HAPPY EARTH DAY!

HAPPY EARTH DAY everyone! Let’s do our part to make things better for our environment, our health and well-being right now, before things get so far out of control that we won’t be able to do anything about it at all.

Let's celebrate EARTH DAY every day! One day is certainly not enough when there are 364 more days left in the year!

“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?”

~ Robert Redford

Celebrating Easter, A Holy Day!

As we approach Easter, let us not forget about the true meaning of what Easter signifies. It is not about the Easter eggs, the Easter Bunny, Easter baskets, Easter outfits or simply going to church on Easter Sunday. Easter is about the Almighty sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave for us, His Resurrection and God’s divine forgiveness of our sins. All too often, we become entrapped by the commercialism of what our holidays are supposed to really mean and the true message gets lost in the shuffle somehow.

For those of us who gave up something during the Lenten Season, let us continue to carry that spirit of prayer, atonement, fasting, and self-denial throughout the year. Let us not try to neatly fit these all important, life-changing times of reflection and celebration into a convenient package that we tuck away until this time next year rolls around. I cannot say often enough how we are truly blessed to be in a country where we can freely practice our religion, our political views and a myriad of other liberties without deadly persecution. We must not take these areas of independence for granted because things can change when we least expect it. We do not live in a land where dictatorship governs every fabric of our lives. We must rejoice in that fact.

As we commemorate the festivities of this Easter, may we continue to reflect on keeping it a Holy Day instead of just another commercialized holiday. Peace & Blessings everyone!

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Movie Trailer for "Poetry" from South Korean Filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong

To continue celebrating National Poetry Month, I wanted to share this touching movie trailer that I came across called "Poetry." This is a movie about loss and discovery. I have not had an opportunity to see the full version of this movie and I don't know if it is available in English, but if anyone runs across the full version, please let me know. It looks like it will be worth seeing.

The movie Poetry, which was written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong, recently won the Regard d'Or Award at the Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland. The movie, about a woman in her sixties who decides to take a poetry class at an adult-education center, also took honors for best screenplay at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. I included that trailer below, so please watch and enjoy!

Tea & Poetry Book Club: April is National Poetry Month

Although April is National Poetry Month, we should enjoy the sheer pageantry of words that perform on the pages of many chapbooks and poetry books every day. The Tea & Poetry Book Club encourages you to grab a book of poetry and a cup of tea, and then allow the flavors of the two mediums to transport you to a serene place of enlightenment, enjoyment and education.

Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month is now held every April, when publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets around the country band together to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture (poets.org). The Academy of American Poets led this initiative from its inception in 1996 and along the way enlisted a variety of government agencies and officials, educational leaders, publishers, sponsors, poets, and arts organizations to help.

So engage in celebrating the beauty of poetry. Attend a poetry reading, go to the library and check out some books on poetry, go to your neighborhood bookstore and buy a book from your favorite author, organize a group of friends to meet, read and discuss one or a few poems or you can go to this link and subscribe to receiving a Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/345.

Today, I am sipping a cup of Earl Grey Green tea, reading one of my favorite poems “Still I Rise” by my favorite poet, Maya Angelou. Grab yourself a cup of tea and Enjoy!

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Here's to a cup of tea and a bit of poetry!
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