It Is Well (with Our Easter)

Happy Easter! We hope yours was as peaceful as ours was. Before the spread of Covid-19, I was planning on participating in a special choral program at Church today. Of course, now that we're social distancing we spent a quiet day at home instead. It felt special in other ways, though.

The day was off to a strong start because my kind friend J sent me a custom recording of her singing one of my favorite hymns, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, with a ukulele accompaniment. Because I couldn't go to Church or take the Sacrament today, I wanted to do something to make it feel like Easter. As part of my daily Scripture study, I've been going through Saints, Volume 2 (a narrative history of the early Church) after recently finishing Saints, Volume 1. Today, though, I made an exception and focused on the Church's #HearHim devotional resources designed especially for Easter. I read Scriptures about the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, revisited talks by Church leaders, listened to hymns, and more. I was particularly moved to learn for the first time the story behind the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul". You can listen to it and learn more about the background here. Taking a few hours to intensively study, ponder, pray, and worship made a huge difference in my personal experience of Easter today.

On a sillier note, I enlisted Marwan in a beloved Easter tradition I had with my sister: Peep Wars/Peep Jousting. We would stick toothpicks in our Peeps marshmallows, make them face each other on a plate, and then pop the whole thing in the microwave to see which Peep stabbed the other first (since marshmallows expand when heated). I can't say it was hugely successful, but we had a good laugh and still ate the Peeps. (I will also say it works a lot better with the bird Peeps that have a wider base than the bunny Peeps we used today.) You can see the setup in the photo above and the results below.

After dinner, M and I went for a pleasant walk in the neighborhood while listening to Reply All, one of our favorite podcasts. It was an amazing episode about investigating a catchy 90s pop song that had somehow been wiped from the Internet. You can listen to it here. Anyway, we enjoyed some scenic views and some encouraging words written in chalk along the path. What a great idea, to write positive things in chalk for people to enjoy and be cheered by when they go outside!

Lastly, my dear friend K generously offered to let us do a contactless pickup of some extra dessert she made! We got some of her scrumptious cake and pashka (a Polish bread traditionally made for Easter) to enjoy at home. And it was super delicious--we dug in as soon as we got back home.

All this time missing things I'm so used to has given me an increased appreciation for just how much I take for granted. At the same time, there was something sweet about the experience of a quiet and relatively solitary Easter experience at home. I'll certainly remember this day, and I'm glad I wrote down what it was like so I can revisit and share it in the future.