A to Z '14 - Easter

For this year's A to Z Challenge, I am honoring my grandfather who passed away on April 3, 2013.


E is for Easter.



I normally don't talk about religion or religious holidays too much. I have my reasons, most of which are because I believe in live & let live. Whatever you celebrate is wonderful, simple as that.

Easter, though, is important to me. It has always been an important holiday for me. Easter was always spent with my grandparents. Every Palm Sunday, my grandfather would give us little crosses made out of palm leaves. We spent Easter with them every year that I can recall. My mother still has the Easter basket I picked out with my grandfather.

When I was older, we still spent Easter Sunday with them. We would go out for early Easter dinners. I just loved spending Easter with them. It didn't necessarily need to be a production. Those are just some of the sweetest, happiest memories I have.



April 3rd fell on Holy Week last year. In the Catholic church, that's a good thing. I don't remember exactly what the priest said at his funeral, but he discussed how appropriate it was for him and how it was also a sign of resurrection and life after death.


This Easter will be a tough one without the most important person in my life. But I will always have those wonderful memories of Easters past.


E is for Easter.

U: Ubiquitous

Ubiquitous. Omnipresent.

The arts are all around us. The arts are indeed ubiquitous.

Look at nature. We have beautiful trees and flowers (painting/colors). We have singing birds (music, performers). We have animals of all sorts (performers, dance). Indeed, the arts are all around us.



I love the fact that the arts are ubiquitous. I need not look far for inspiration. Inspiration, creativity and various creations lay before me wherever I turn.




As a creator, it could be say that I am following in the foot steps of the great creator: the one who created those flowers, birds and animals.



Creativity is as ubiquitous as God/The Universe/Great Spirit/Whatever you want to call him/her/it. Divinity and creativity are actually tightly intertwined when you think about it.


So the ubiquity of the arts denotes its divinity. Go relish in nature, in life, in the arts.

Ubiquity is the best facet to creativity.

G: Gardening

It's ironic that I would write about gardening as I have whatever the antithesis of a green thumb would be. I LOVE flowers and plants and things, just somewhat inept in the care of such plants.

My lack of flora skills aside, gardening is actually a wonderful creative outlet. With gardening, you have the process of planting the seeds or bulbs and then nurturing the plant until it blooms fully.




Just as a writer types letters with tremendous focus and detail, just as they carefully edit their piece until it blooms, so does a gardener tend to their work.



In every creative process, there is some divine intervention in the process. Any painter will tell you that they just become a vessel for the colors and images to arrive on the canvas. As a writer I can tell you that the words and story just flow from my hands, they don't necessarily come from me. In gardening, the process comes in watching mother nature and helping (i.e., watering) when applicable.



You decide which plants go where, what colors you like, etc. Gardening is painting in real life.



It is beautiful, it releases stress and it is incredibly artistic/creative.

Take a look at these images and tell me I'm wrong. ;)