Rebirth

Rebirth

The first service I ever attended at the First Unitarian Church of Hamilton, was the Easter service.  I was curious about how a non-Christian church would handle this particular service.   Would they totally disregard the resurrection and just treat it like any other Sunday?  Would they adopt the Christian beliefs for one Sunday and talk about Jesus.  I was pleasantly surprised by what happened and that service was the main reason I have become a Unitarian.

The service leader was Linda Thomson, who is now a Unitarian Minister.  She told the children’s story that day.  And it was beautiful.  She talked about how the earth dies in the fall but is reborn again in the spring with new buds, new flowers.  How our lives are full of beginnings and endings, we leave the womb to start a new life, we leave infancy and become toddlers, toddlers become preschoolers and so it goes.  When she was talking about spring and the “resurrections” that occur in nature she mentioned that the Christians believe in a man named Jesus and that he died and was born again.   I am just giving you the gist of it here as it was 10 years ago, so I may not be totally accurate but you get the point.  Life is full of small deaths and rebirths. 

I don’t know if it’s my Indigenous roots or if everyone feels this way but I feel intensely connected to the earth. My mental and physical health are very affected by the weather and the changing seasons.  I feel weather changes coming and I feel seasons changing on a deep, primal level.  Not like oh it’s cold it must be winter or look at the grey clouds, rain is coming.  More like I feel a shift in the energy around me.  On a cloudy day I can sense the moment just before the sun comes out.  There is a lightening in the energy.  In the fall I feel what I call a “drawing down” as the earth gets ready to sleep for the winter.  In the spring I feel a “burgeoning” as the trees bud and the flowers poke their faces up from the earth.  

Right now with all of this pandemic and quarantine, I can feel the peace and silence of a world at rest.  I have rarely left the house in these past weeks, and I can’t see the street or any businesses from my windows.  But I feel a sense of quiet.  And it’s not sombre.  It’s the earth resting.   Taking a welcome breath of cleaner air.  Enjoying the lack of human activity.  Being just what they are, trees, and plants and animals untouched and unthreatened by us.   The way they were before we came alone and polluted the air, and bulldozed their habitats.  I love this feeling.  I love the gentleness of this spring.   Even though it is still cooler than normal, it has been a very mild spring here in our corner of the world.  Not much rain.  A few flakes of snow.  Lots of sunshine.  It gives me a feeling of hope that all will be well.  I know in my mind that we still have a long way to go.  But in my soul, I feel the healing and the burgeoning all around me.

Take a few minutes out of your day and just stop and listen and tune in to the energy around you.   Feel the burgeoning and the hope of spring. Smell the wakening earth.  See the buds and sprouts and blossoms.  Allow yourself to feel that, no matter what is going on with you, life will go on in one form or another.