Resurrection Sunday and I am changed

Today, Easter, has always been celebrated in my family with church, new clothing, and big family dinner. Yes we talked about Christ and the resurrection but I never really felt it until today.

Late last night Brutus brought me a robin's nest. Still wet with cold mud, empty of eggs, with lots of threads of different grasses, twigs and even a strand of what looks to be dental floss... It felt like an offering to me. I felt like Brutus was trying to tell me something, but I just couldn't hear it with all the other noises around. I went to bed and forgot about it.

This morning I went for a long walk with one of my dearest friends Athena. She belongs to the Greek Orthodox church in Ithaca and she was telling me about midnight services and how Father Tom spoke to her heart and used a lot of metaphor to explain resurrection. It was beautiful to hear the story from Athena. Our hearts were full of love and as she spoke she was animated, humorous and serious all with her greek accent and sprinkling of greek words.

Toward the end of our walk we were so grateful for the birds that had seranaded us the whole hour we were walking and we stopped at what some people would see as "just a swamp". We saw it as beauty! The dry clumps of weeds with water surrounding, the many different greens and a few drops of red from the skunk cabbage beginning to bloom. As we were standing giving thanks a red winged black bird flew past us and landed on an old cattail. I told Athena how many people think of Robins as spring but I always think of the red winged black birds as my sign of approaching spring. I shared with her how Robins are always around, common everyday birds, that were just always present so I didn't really associate anything with them. I basically took them for granted...

Moments after this conversation we came upon a Robin which looked to be dead on the side of the road. We could have chosen to walk on by, but instead we stopped. For some reason I felt connected to this "dead" robin. I can't even explain why... As we stood looking down on this bird I knelt beside her (I say her because the bird felt feminine to me) and scooped her up into my hands and began to unwind her chakras and pray. Within seconds I felt her heart beat and Athena and I saw her open her eyes, look at us, take her last breath and then close her eyes. We felt her last heart beat, saw her chest rise and fall one last time as she released her spirit from the physical body that had been her vehicle here. And as she closed her eyes and I felt her bodyheat transfer to me I was changed.

We carried the Robin home and talked about what we imagined her life to have been and thanked her for the gift she gave us. We did a ceremony (and by the way, how did Brutus know the Robin would need her nest??) to witness this beautiful creatures exit from earth bound beauty into spirit soaring. It was beautiful, the words, the feelings, the community (our small community albeit), the sacredness of life and death.

Today with that Robin I understood and I am changed.

Blessed be, Janet