Spring Rituals

When I was a little girl, my mom loved making Easter super special.  We would spend hours together dying heaps of eggs, intricate double dippers, invisible crayon designs, making a magnificent mess and our fingers rainbow colors for days to come.  The four of us kids would put a basket out the night before, and in the morning they would be filled with brightly colored plastic grass, yellow fuzzy chicks, and all kinds of little surprises that would fascinate us.  There was also indulgence and chocolate too.  A giant chocolate bunny, sometimes pure solid chocolate, that we would eat until we were sick to our stomachs and cry.   Every year my mom never missed a beat with the rituals.  There were fancy dresses, Easter Mass, a great big family meal, and photos under the lilac vine.  Today I am completely mystified how my mother was able to pull it all off and  do it with so much mystery and magic. For the magic is what I really remember.  It is times like these, more than ever, that I wish she was still around for me to ask her how she did it.  Now that I am a mother myself and my own person, some of the rituals have been laid to rest… the clothes not as fancy, no plastic grass, no silly kid toys, and  sadly less chocolate.  Today we grow our own grass, and go surfing instead of to church.  But we take lots of photos, we dye eggs and we hunt.   We make our own magic now and we still find our fingers rainbow colors for days to come.