A Cygnus member recently put forward a very good question to me as a comment on the article ‘Signs of Spring‘. How can one live completely in the moment while embracing a sense of hope, based as it tends to be upon future outcomes? More than anything, I think that Easter time provides us with a perfect example of the natural balance of the two principles.
Seeds of hope
By now we’ve started planting our seeds and where we planted bulbs we now see life spring forth in vivid colours and fresh fragrance. As we turn over the soil, as we plant the seeds and bulbs and as we painstakingly weed around them and ensure they’re well fed, we do so with our attention firmly in the ‘now’. Indeed many people refer to gardening as a form of meditation or therapy because of the way it draws our attention from the bother of modern life towards the natural joys and challenges of the present moment. At the same time, during all this hard work, are we not full of hopes of a bountiful harvest? How many times have you looked over your garden, or little growing space, and imagined all the fruits of your labour that will warm your heart and fill your plate?
The same goes in life, as we devote our attention to the Power of Now, embracing what is, accepting the hard truths, dealing with them and celebrating the joys, we do so with hearts full of hope. Hope for personal healing, hope for our future, hope for our loved ones and for humanity. If we are going to be honest with ourselves and allow all feelings to flow, hope would be as welcome as the fairest, most fragrant flower in our garden.
Hunting our Talents
Easter eggs, not just a chocolatey indulgence, are Easter’s symbol of new life and new hope. I have a very fitting Easter Egg game lined up for my son … and for me! I invite you to have a go, using these steps as a guide but fine tuning it to suit you:
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Firstly we will write, on separate pieces of paper, what we believe our unique talents are, that reflect our greatness. They will be written with care, maybe with some glitter sprinkled on for effect (after all what is Easter without a little sparkle?!), to represent how special those talents are. I’m not particularly wow at arts and crafts and my son is only seven so it really doesn’t matter how good it looks, as long as some care and positive intent goes into it.
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On the night before Easter we will put the notes of paper out for the Easter bunny who will add otherworldly magic to them and hide them in special places that will lead us on the ‘remembering walk’.
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Then on Easter day we will go on our egg hunt. With each chocolate egg we find we will also find one of the unique talent notes we made, all of it will get added to the basket. The eggs don’t necessarily have to be chocolate, I just want them to be and yes they will probably be nibbled on as we go along. We will colour code the sign posts to ensure that the right seeker is led to the right notes.
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The final egg we find will be ‘greatness egg’. This large one won’t be edible as we want to keep it, as a visual reminder of our greatness through the year. It could be a wooden egg, a paper mache egg or maybe just an egg shape cut out of card, whatever you like. This is where we get crafty again. We take a look at all those individual talents again and discuss them as we decorate our egg, sharing what we like about each others talents and about our own and how they can help others.
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The final step is to stick our notes onto our egg. This egg serves as a reminder of our greatness as we travel through the seasons and as a representation of our own growth and development. Our greatness, alive as it is in every moment is will nourish us with hope of what might just hatch from that egg!
I hope you enjoy this Easter game and get something useful from it. Cygnus and I would love it if you shared photos of your greatness egg on the Cygnus Books Facebook or Twitter pages … everyone who does will receive a unique code for 10% off their next order (don’t forget to post directly to Cygnus’ Facebook page or include the @Cygnus-Books in your Tweet). I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
Wishing you and yours a very Happy Easter, with one love,
Louisa and the Cygnus Books Team