A Holy Day

The last time I didn't go to church on Easter, it was 1998 and I was in DC for an externship that was wrapping up a few weeks later. I spent the morning hiking around Great Falls with my friends/landlords-at-the-time J. and R., and had chicken fajitas for dinner. It was a really nice day, but not holy.

There have been Easter Sundays that I did go to church and still didn't have a holy day (the first Easter I was married I insisted we have ham but didn't plan ahead for it and ended up with a 13 pounder... I'd wanted it because that was the Geitz family Easter tradition but when I called home later that day they were all eating fried chicken).

I went to a Maundy Thursday service on the invitation of J. (who, since 1998 has gotten divorced and has been kind enough to become my divorce mentor) - it was Anglican and very foreign. I was too busy trying to figure out what was going on (oh, kneel? Ok. Um, those people are putting their lips on the communion cup...do I have to?) to really get anything out of it. I went to the Good Friday chapel service at the National Cathedral, and while beautiful and moving as always, it doesn't change from year to year so it's easy to kind of go through the motions (though the motions involve amazing, amazing music).

I had no plans to go to church this morning, as I haven't looked/found one to be mine. I thought if I could get myself out of bed that I might go into town to see the cherry blossoms, but I wasn't going to set an alarm. I woke up around 6:45 and thought, well, it's probably too late to get near the park so maybe I shouldn't go. Then I read a Facebook post that said "Why do you look for the living among the dead?", and I thought, "yes, that's right... I am not dead so go out among the living".

So, I took my cup of coffee for a walk around the Tidal Basin (and even found parking on the mall!). It was certainly not too late, though the crowds were already heavy, as was the trash from the day before. It was a beautiful, beautiful morning though, and it was easy to see signs of the resurrection everywhere - from the blossoms to the families to the wedding couples taking pictures among the blooms. There was even a moment when, walking from the FDR memorial towards the Lincoln, the crowds thinned and I was alone with my coffee and my thoughts and my God. It was definitely a holy day.

A few of the views...












Hmmm...homeland security concerns about the Smoke Monster?