Dear ones,

The spirit of our dear ones lives on in us. Easter Sunday in 2011 lives on as a powerful and enduring memory for me. My dear father had been saved and was recovering from life-saving heart surgery and health challenges, he had lived! After 83 days in intensive care and weeks in the hospital and then in rehab, he was finally able to come home on a rainy, cold Thursday just days before I would offer an Easter Service in the Walpole Church. He was fragile, and couldn’t sit still, traveling miles behind a walker around and around the big stone chimney in his home. But he was getting stronger, even able to plant his beloved seeds, and return to being in his gardens when the days grew warmer. He lived for another twelve years, and his spirit and open heart lives on in me, in flowers and green growing plants. 

And my dear mother lives on in music – in Bach and Handel, in our beloved UU hymns. 

The spirit of our dear ones lives on in us – we might see them in a flower emerging from dark earth, in a bird winging by, remember them in the warm scent of fresh bread or notice delicate stitches in a quilt they sewed, brush strokes of a painting they created, words on a page. Their spirit, their memory lives on in us. We remember our dear All Souls folks who have passed on, our family and friends. We remember them, their spirits live on. 

Traveling the path we find ourselves on, searching for the moments that might lift us above the ordinary, the struggle, the bleakness, believing there are truths and strength beyond this daily life. Coming together as a community of faith, these are the elements, the true spirit of Easter that have sustained people for thousands of years. 

We aren’t asked to embrace the Christian scriptures, written many years after his death, crafted to send people down a certain path, meant to narrowly define who he was and what he represented. No, we can claim the light for ourselves – the light of truth that does shine into the darkest places; the light of love that conquers fear and creates healing; the light of justice that creates an even field and an open door, this can be our strength. And in this time of politics and struggle, violence and fear, complicated technology and re-drawn borders and differences that push to separate us, we can seek solace and inspiration from those who live on in spirit, and from the dear ones living around us. We are not alone, though it can feel that way at times. 

We are together and there are a host of companions along the path we travel. May we spread our hands, and share who we are and what we can offer as we find our way together with truth and compassion lighting our way. 

Blessings,

Rev. Telos