James Staley. Easter Greetings from Rozkalni
05. {. 2010.
Dear Friends,
Easter greetings! I was asked how I was spending Easter and thought I'd share the reply with a larger group. It's been a lovely day for me and I hope the same for each of you. It's already evening here and it was a lovely day, spent with my friends up the road at the Camphill village for handicapped people. Winter is finally letting go, so it was a pleasant day even though some snow remains and conditions outdoors are muddy, wet, and sometimes very fresh.
Because we are out in the country, the Easter Hare -- (a hare is similar to a jack-rabbit, so he can carry much more than a mere bunny) -- has a lot of choices and possiblities for hiding his gifts. This hare chose the nearby woods. We went to the woods and spread out, looking for goodies -- colored eggs, bright oranges, little packets of candies, each tied in a ribbon. They were hidden in stumps and among the ferns, holes in trees, etc. The rule was that when you found something, you had to take it back to the starting point and place it on a cloth there before going to look for more. No one was rushing about, scooping up everything before anyone else could get it.
When it appeared that we had found most of what had been left, we gathered in a circle around the cloth and the goodies were distributed in a very sweet way. The first person was allowed to choose something from the cloth -- but not for himself. He must give it to someone else in the circle. That person then chooses something for another person, and on it goes til everyone has had a chance to both give and receive and all the goodies are given out. It also was nice that each person, upon receiving the orange or egg or candies, put them on the ground in front of his or her feet, which meant that one could easily notice if anyone was being short-changed. It was a very natural and easy self-correcting system for sharing. While this was taking place, we sang a number of Easter songs. (Latvians like to do everything with music, especially singing.)
Hugo, the donkey, came with us into the woods and seemed to greatly enjoy being out of the barn. Geese and chickens and turkeys and Guinea fowl also were out of their pens, happy to roam the barnyard again. Overhead, flew noisy V-formations of geese and swans, on their way to Northern tundra zones for the nesting season, chattering and gossiping the whole time.
There are other Easter traditions, too -- mostly associated with colored eggs. These include competitive games in which one wins the other person's egg, but I will leave the details for another time. We also had some eurythmy in the morning and a festive meal which combined easter and the birthday of one villager -- a boy who turned 21 today.
We also spent nearly an hour doing painting. Everyone was given water colors and paper and asked to paint a rainbow. What a lovely exercise for Easter morning -- relaxed and sociable, yet stretching the abilities of each person, no matter how great or small those abilities were.
When I came home this evening, there was still enough light for me to take a walk through a portion of the bog area. This is the first time in months that the ice has been off the creeks, so it was also the first time I have observed beavers in a long time. Two of them (one at a time) somehow failed to react with alarm and allowed me to watch them. Both times, I froze when I saw them and they looked right at me from only about 20-30 feet away. One of them just kept on doing what he was doing, while the other stopped and stared and stared at me. His mental processes must be very slow, as it took him a long time before he decided to get out of sight. Why do I so much enjoy these guys? Perhaps because I would so much enjoy being a water creature myself.
So that's been my Easter. Since the Equinox two weeks ago, conditions have changed enormously and one can feel that Winter truly is behind us. It's been a difficult and unhappy winter for me, and I'm glad to see the end of it. It's a new season.
Much love to you all!
Jim.
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