May Day

What does Easter, May Day and Winston Churchill's funeral all have in common?

Soon after my brother's funeral a few weeks ago, my family celebrated Easter. During one of the Easter celebrations I attended, someone brought up Winston Churchill's funeral. Seven days later (yesterday) was May Day, or Belltaine in my Celtic roots. It also marked the one year anniversary since my husband and I performed a memorial to our lost pregnancy described here.

Other than the timing, they all celebrate a time of moving from death into life.

Belltaine is a celebration between the cold, dark winter days in the northern hemisphere and the bright summer season full of life and growth. Easter is a celebration of passing through death into eternal life. At Winston Churchill's funeral, as he requested, the last notes were not Taps, though that was played. But immediately following Taps, was Reveille ~ the song the military uses to get people out of bed and report ready to start the new day ~ meeting life with renewed energy.

While there are times things must end in life, and our hearts are saddened by their passing. there are also times when we must remember:

LIFE ~ GOES ~ ON!

We need to see what we still have, what is just starting, and where that takes us, away from darkness, sadness and loss... back into life!

Happy Easter
Happy May Day
Reveille!

-ESA