Easter 2005... and deep thoughts

Happy Easter Monday! Hope you all had very pleasant holidays. Ours was good, if a bit rushed on Easter Day, and a bit FULL OF CHOIR COMMITTMENTS during the week! I am still pooped. Could barely open my eyes this morning. I sang on Wednesday night (rehearsal), Good Friday, the Saturday (3.5-hour) Vigil, and Sunday morning. But on Sunday, our choir had that magnificent sound that you want to hear on Easter morning, complete with full chords of "Alleluia!" ringing in the sanctuary -- it was perfect. I was quite proud of us. :)

So many of the services made me think of poor Terri Schiavo. On Friday, when they read the Passion, the priest who was reading the part of Jesus (and is very dramatic, anyway) added extra emphasis on "I Thirst!" You could hear Jesus himself crying out that way. I thought of Terri -- that's probably what she'd say, if only she could. And, hoping to not sound over the top here, but I thought, we're the crowd: basically crucifying this woman in the very same way, though she's completely innocent of any crime. Another one of the songs we did was "On Eagle's Wings," (a Michael Joncas classic). Normally it isn't my favorite, but one of the verses says, "The snare of the fowler will never capture you, and famine will bring you no fear... so I was a bit comforted by that. (Also comforted to read in the news this morning that they are, in fact, giving her morpheine for her pain.) I think it's an absolute travesty, and a sick reflection of our society that we value the "letter of the law" and the American court system more than we value an actual LIFE. I wish that the judges could just take all the paperwork out of it, and make a decision based on humanity. I don't know how to say what I feel about it: It's not a legislative issue. It's a humanity issue. She's a person, not an "agenda item." Yanno? I read somewhere that her brain activity is like that of a young cerebral palsy sufferer. We let them live, hello! However, as their years-long trial seems to be coming to a close here, I'm also of the opinion that the family really needs all of this to end. The legal quagmire, the media coverage, the political ping-pong, and the hatred of and fighting with Michael Schiavo are just too much for them to handle while they grieve the last few days that their daughter/sister has to live. I am praying that the rest just goes quickly. Let her go in peace, to be healed. To be beautiful again. I'm not saying they should stop fighting -- I'm saying that when the inevitable comes, it will begin a new chapter for them, and hopefully it will be a much more peaceful one, knowing as they will, that Terri finally rests in comfort.

As for us! Easter morning was fun, at least for me. I love being the Easter bunny! Maybe even more than being Santa (although I wasn't much of a Santa this year since we weren't at our own house). I made bunny footprints using Carpet Fresh and a slotted spoon, after being inspired in someone's blog when they did the same with leprechaun feet on St. Patty's day. So cute! DH loved that. AJ got all excited about his new football and red rubber Spiderman ball, and we had Easter dinner with my cousin and her family. It was a very long day, going from church to home to cooking crepes for brunch to her house for dinner, and we didn't get home 'til about 9:30, when DH commenced another load of laundry (wonderful husband).... but it was a celebration all the same. As the old commercial used to say, Thanks Easter bunny! Bock, bock!