{Living Mindfully}

If you believe Easter is all about the image at left, you are sadly mistaken. I was disappointed to listen to a friend of a friend talk all about her Easter plans. Coloring eggs. Filling baskets. Chocolate Bunnies. No mention of Jesus in there. I guess even if she had mentioned church, that really may not mean anything as many people are Easter/Christmas church-goers. I have tried to live mindfully this last week & really stay focused on what Easter is all about. Last night as I was putting Sienna to bed, after laying her in the crib, I stepped on and crushed a plastic egg. I was *instantly* struck with the thought that in the same way I crushed this egg beneath my foot, Jesus' body was broken for me. It was such a graphic and appropriate reminder! Then today while driving home from some family festivities, I thought of Him and Easter when listening to the lyrics of a song:

It's all about you, Jesus. And all this is for You, for Your glory and Your fame. It's not about me, as if You should do things my way. You alone are God and I surrender, to Your way. Jesus ~ Lover of my soul, all consuming fire is in Your gaze. Jesus ~ I want You to know, I will follow You for all my days. For no one else in history is like You and history itself belongs to You....

Isn't that really what Easter is all about? It's not about the Easter bunny. It's not about the basket. It's not about the fancy dresses or the big meal or even the church service. It's all about Jesus.
It's so much easier to just live a robotic life, not to think critically about what we watch, what we read, about our choices. So much easier not to live mindfully of the world around us. Easier, but not better. It was Robert Frost in a famous poem who said, "Two roads diverged in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by." When we live conciously, we live a much better and fuller life. I hope that I can live everyday in light of Easter and the hope that He has given me.

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

1. The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;	5
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,	10
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.	15
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

May you chose the road that leads to eternity, the one that is less traveled by. It really will make all the difference.