Yesterday was Good Friday for Christians. I had a follow-up appointment with the electrophysiologist and planned a trip to Costco on the way back. I hoped it wouldn't be really crowded because...Good Friday and Easter. I don't 'do' Easter just like I don't 'do' Christmas or any religious holiday since I don't 'do' religion. You may think that makes me an atheist but I'm not. My understanding of the nature of the universe and life is about as diametrically opposed to the Abrahamic religions as it could possibly be. Buddhism, Taoism, even Paganism is closer. The universe is god/dess as opposed to separate from god, something made.
At SHARE I pretty much keep mum about my personal beliefs, the ones I have and the ones I don't have, around these church going believers. I don't lie about it but I do try to skate around the subject on the rare occasions it arises, usually around the big holidays. Usually I just get asked if I'm ready for whatever holiday or wished a good holiday and my reply is that I'm as ready as I ever am or I wish them a good holiday back. But yesterday Jan asked me if my family was getting together for Easter, to which I stuttered that we didn't do Easter. Kids and grandkids were grown and scattered and my family had a beach house when I was growing up where we spent weekends and my mother wasn't about to cook a big meal when she could be on the beach. What I didn't tell her was that I had rejected Christian theology before I had kids and raised my kids Jewish before I rejected religion altogether and so we never did celebrate Easter.
One of the things Christianity did as it sought to spread across the world and suppress the nature/native religions was to take the seasonal fertility, harvest, and winter celebrations and rededicate them to it's god (Judaism did this also ) so the fertility and rebirth celebration became the rebirth, resurrection, of Jesus. People were more likely to convert if they could keep their celebrations, if they could find their goddess in Mary.
I personally prefer recognizing the emerging new life by nurturing that emerging life, planting seeds, allowing the early wildflowers to exist providing sustenance for the bees and other pollinators. And so right now my backyard looks like this.
Because it was Good Friday I commented to the receptionist that I was surprised they had scheduled my appointment for that day and she remarked that she was surprised by the lack of traffic this morning as 'we're not religious'. My electrophysiologist is Korean and just about everyone in the office is Asian. I'm not religious either, I told her, so it worked out for me. No traffic, parking lot mostly empty, didn't have to wait, got in and out in 40 minutes.
When I got to Costco though my fears were realized. The place was packed with the two lines waiting for a register extending halfway through the store but by the time I had gotten all the stuff on my list that they had (no spanikopita, no samosas, no chia seeds but you know what they did have after years of not and I finally ordered it online in February...short grain brown rice) and headed to the registers, the lines were gone and only two people in front of me.
So here's a few more pictures to honor Ms Nature in her personification as Spring.
The flowers are lovely, thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks. The yard is pretty glorious this time of year.
DeleteWell said about religion.
ReplyDeleteThanks and thanks for visiting. I could go on about religion but I don't want to be rude. I'm fine with it as long as people keep it to themselves but the problem is, they don't/won't. My personal observation is that more evil has been done in the name of religion than any amount of good as the good always comes with strings.
DeleteAmen! It amazes me that people can be cruel/criminal and say it's in the name of God or other religious icon.
DeleteI love your backyard! And nature is my religion also. :) Tho I do love coloring Easter Eggs LOL
ReplyDeleteThanks and thanks for visiting. I haven't dyed eggs in decades though it was always a fun thing to do when I was a kid.
DeleteIn the next to last photo, the seed pods make me think those are poppies, but I've never seen anything like them. They're gorgeous! They remind me of the "flowers" we used to make by tying Kleenex (?) or something together, or it with bobby pins, and then pulling out the 'petals.'
ReplyDeleteThey are poppies and I'm not really sure where this one came from. It sprouted in a different flower bed than my other regular red poppies.
DeleteMy mother always had poppies like this -- huge, colorful red blooms. I always wanted to get some of the seeds but never did. :/
DeleteWe had thought about a grocery store run today, but decided that would be a terrible idea. Traffic yesterday (Friday) was just nuts. There are two ugly bushes that I want to dig up, but it's still too dang cold. Your yard looks lovely.
ReplyDeleteI lucked out on the traffic yesterday. I have a clump of red crinum lilies I want to dig up and move and share and I need to do it before it gets too hot. The downside is that if I dig them up before they bloom then they won't bloom this year.
DeleteYour pictures are so beautiful and make me feel more "worshipful" than any Christ on a cross ever could.
ReplyDeleteI got my groceries earlier in the week, thank goodness.
My family IS getting together tomorrow and that means I need to clean up the house at least a little bit and get the final dinner prep done. Also, since August and Levon just left, the house is completely destroyed. And I did not get a whole lot of sleep last night. Well, I'll get done what I get done and that'll be good enough.
Enjoy your flowers, your peace, and your quiet tomorrow.
Love from Lloyd.
Of course your family is getting together tomorrow. That's what y'all do and I love that you do it. Any excuse or reason for that love fest you call a family.
DeleteLike you, I don’t believe in a deity “out there” but rather God is in us, and all around us, manifested as love. “God is love” is so very literal to me. Still, I partake of some of the rituals with people whose version of faith is open ended, welcoming all belief system that hold love at the center. Nothing turns me away like proselytizing and dogma so I’ll stop here before I veer into that terrain. I love your spring flowers.
ReplyDeleteGod is love, yes, god is consciousness, everything is conscious so there you go. There are many reasons for family and friends to get together on a particular day to celebrate Spring and the symbols of Easter are old, were ancient before the Church absorbed them. Have a wonderful day with your loved ones.
DeleteNow THATS a backyard
ReplyDeletewild and wooly!
DeleteThe only big religious celebration we went to when I was young was Passover dinner at my aunt's (my father's sister). My mother's family did not celebrate at all. I remember one year while we were waiting for Elijah ("After the conclusion of the Seder’s Grace After Meals, there is a universally accepted custom to pour a cup of wine (the “Cup of Elijah”), open the front door of the home, and recite several verses (mostly from Psalms) wherein we beseech G‑d to pour His wrath upon our persecutors and oppressors..." there was a knock on the door. My siblings and I were very giddy about it. We were Jewish Atheists and Elijah was literally knocking. We laughed and laughed. My aunt opened the door to find a UPS delivery guy with a package (or something like that). It's my favorite Passover story. We did not celebrate holidays other than Halloween and Thanksgiving. Too much blood has been shed over religion. We're one species on this beautiful planet. The rest are made up stories glorifying our existence and making enemies.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is Jewish, now only by heritage. It took him longer to eschew religion but he did see the light. No Big Daddy in the sky. His sister's kids and their families are heavy into it, active in their synagogue, do a big family and friends seder every year. When our kids were little we did Passover a couple of times (and that's a great Passover story of yours), played up Hanukkah. My rationalization at the time was to give them a foundation so that they wouldn't be susceptible to cults like so many young people were in the 70s (Hare Krishnas and TM for example). Kind of ironic since I fully expected them to rebel against it as I had my upbringing in Christianity. As a child, we did the Easter baskets and candy and dyed eggs and did the hunt and went to church. That stopped when my parents got the beach house if it hadn't already. We probably still dyed eggs for the fun of it.
DeleteGladness for pagan springtime earth day everyday. Ain't no god , just botany, biology, and meteorology today.
ReplyDeleteEarth Day every day. No Big Daddy in the sky. Only Lucy with diamonds.
DeleteYour yard is all about fertility and bees and honey, too, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor gets the honey as I'm pretty sure the bees are his.
DeleteI used to be religious, but a number of years ago I became what I call "Spiritual" and more in tune to being a good person in the universe. I truly dislike organized religion because they worship money and almost demand it from their believers/congregation.
ReplyDeleteI live in a country where church and state are strictly separate and the majority is agnostic and yet, good Friday is a serious holiday - worse than Sundays when all shops are closed - on good Friday even the pubs and restaurants and coffee trucks are shut. Whenever there's a call for shops to be opened, even just on a Sunday, the unions are the first to complain because worker's holidays are the holiest of all.
ReplyDeleteWe are a pagan household currently worshiping spring though, especially the goddess of asparagus.
Lovely, lovely plant pictures!
I love all your pictures of "Mother Nature" and that's my way of recognizing Easter too -- enjoying all the signs of rebirth. I honestly was barely aware it was Easter this weekend.
ReplyDeleteI love your back yard! I'm edging closer & closer to how you believe. Mike is already there. But I still do church for now - because otherwise I would just sit on my butt all weekend. (That actually sounds DIVINE)
ReplyDelete