After the drama and darkness of a full Catholic Holy Week, the arrival of Easter is more of a relief and release more than anything else. When you’re raised in a Catholic household, you quickly understand that Easter is a much bigger deal than Christmas, and as such it carried a sense of seriousness. The main lesson I got in all those years – a lesson I’m only now truly seeing – was that a resurrection is more powerful and important than a birth. Coming back from the dead – and conquering torturous terrors and persecution – was more of a story than simply entering the world.
There was power in that lesson, and in the realization that no one is born strong. We build strength throughout our lives, if we choose to do so – and the marks we make in this world and our all-too-brief lives here depend on how many times we resurrect ourselves after we fall. Most of us will experience far more failures and fumbles than unmitigated successes – and the most successful people will tell you that the falls were the key to their triumphs. We learn best from the mistakes we make and the tumbles we take, but only if we deign to get back up and try to get better.
That’s the closest I’m going to get to emulating Easter, because I’m not quite ready for the cross.
