Easter weekend, part 1

Can you believe that it's almost the end of April?  May is just around the corner.  This hasn't been a banner month for me posting anything, but as any of you with children may know, the end of the school year keeps people busy.  Projects and parties and stuff.

 

But that's not all.  There's also another - yes, another - consignment sale I'm participating in.  Thankfully, this is the last one.  All of the things that don't get sold this time around will be donated, so none of it is coming back to me.  Two good things, really.  Of course,  I feel like all I've done in the last four weeks is dig out old toys and clothes and tag them.  But in the middle of those four weeks was Easter.

 

This year, Monkey had a four day weekend for Easter.  And I found out back in December,  I think it was, that The Dead were going to be touring again and their first show (April 12th - Easter) was going to be in a city about 20 minutes from where my dad lives.  The planets were aligning just right for me to make a long weekend trip, both for me and for the grandparents.  And that's not all.

 

Back when I was a child, my dad took me to the Easter Sunrise service at Old Salem.  It's the longest running service in America (this year marked 273).  I don't remember much about it from when I was a child, but it's been on my heart for a couple of years now to try and go back.  Again, the opportunity of this year's four day weekend and my plan to go to the concert gave me a chance to go back to the service, as an adult.

 

I'm choosing not to go into any great detail, but suffice it to say it was moving.  We started out in front of the old Moravian church, then walked a few blocks to the cemetery called God's Acre, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.  It's a very traditional service, having not changed much in the last 200 years.  Although it's much more crowded now and I did see a news camera there.

 

The service threatened to lose something for me when I saw the news there filming the walk to God's Acre, but I tried not to pay attention.  The sacredness of something seems lost when it's filmed for the local 6:00 news.  But as I stood on top of the hill, watched the sun rise and listened to the brass bands play rounds of old hymns, I found the sacredness.

 

Then I went home, warmed up (it was really cold that early in the morning!!) and went back to sleep while my dad and his wife took the kids to their Easter service.  A girl needs her sleep before going to a concert!

 

This is the first post in what will probably be a series of three or four about Easter weekend.  I have photos from our Easter egg hunt from that afternoon and a bunch from the concert.  I know the weekend is fast approaching so I may not get the next post until Monday, but I will soon, promise.

 

Oh, and my story for the writing contest is done.  I think.  I'll be posting part of that here in the next few days as well.  

 

Hope to see you back soon!