It's been ages, literally, since I wrote here. The sun is bright this morning, as though it knows today is the Vernal Equinox and we all need it to be warmer and brighter today, of all days.
4 years since I celebrated this turning in a world forever changed.
4 years since we locked ourselves inside our homes, hoping to never have to do that again... and eventually hoping we could do that again.
4 years. Millions dead.
And the sun rose this morning as it did yesterday, and the day before, and as it will tomorrow because we believe.
Some call today Ostara, based on a bald faced lie about a goddess we have no real information on in an effort to rise against Christianity in this country.
I celebrate today for what it is, the turning of the sun, a marker of the year where the sunrise comes sooner and the sunset comes later. I celebrate today with friends, with my plants, with a wedding ring on my finger and a reminder that 2 years ago today is when we announced our engagement. I celebrate today clearer headed than I have been in years, since the hectic times of planning a wedding and the year of coming down from that rush.
I planned a wedding while the world argued about vaccinations, while we watched our loved ones become ill and watched few become well again. I made my dress, we did tastings with staff in masks, I added hand sanitizer and masks to the items to order for the reception and prayed for good weather so we could be outdoors for the whole thing. My greatest fear for the day was that someone would come down ill with Covid. Many brides in the last 4 years probably shared that fear. There is no support group for that. But no one got sick from my wedding, and that's the best blessing I could ask for. I came away from the day with too much cake and married to the man who had been my partner for the last decade. I could ask for nothing more.
I will admit that today snuck up on me. In the past I've dyed eggs, made a lemon raspberry pudding pie, I've had a feast ready for dinner. Today... I didn't even look at the calendar in time to know that I'd scheduled dinner with a friend tonight on the feast night. I won't cancel the plans, my husband will not begrudge me a night out, but it will be different.
The pandemic isn't over, people still die needlessly, and the land may never recover but we celebrate anyway, our small holy days, and we live our lives because that's all we can do.
