We come to this Easter festival as pilgrims of the spirit.
The year has once more cycled into spring
And life is resurgent - it will not be denied.
This morning we celebrate nature's inevitable pageant -
It has no choice but to give us spring after winter
After fall - after summer - it is the nature of things.
For us life resurgent is not automatic;
Each of us is weighed down by sadness from time to time,
By heavy responsibilities, by sobering realities,
By a realization of our finitude
in the great mystery of life and death.
We try to balance the good with the bad,
The happy with the sad,
And work out our uneasy equations.
Today let us take on the upsurging life of the natural world,
Let us reach upward toward the sun like flowers,
Let us blossom as buds on the trees,
Let us sink down roots like the plants in our gardens,
Let us take on the power that moves in us and in all being.
Surely this day is an occasion for happiness;
Surely this day is a time of celebration;
Surely "joy is the condition of life."
* Henry David Thoreau
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