For me Easter is always a time of reflection.
I remember so clearly my eldest granddaughter having fun in our garden, running up and down searching for any Easter eggs that the Easter bunny may have left for her, and her squeals of delight when she found one. Culminating in her sitting in our summer house clutching her eggs. That was in 2007.
It is memories like this that are so special.
This one was especially significant for all my family because it was the last time we saw her for 11 years.
Even now I can still recall that feeling of devastation and pain.
As with all holiday times Easter is so hard if you are estranged from your grandchildren, memories of how it should be are just that a memory.
If you are Christian then Easter is the beginning, a time where after a terrible heartbreak on Good Friday of betrayal, the sun rises on Easter Sunday, the birds are singing and nature is waking up all around us, and a future is there, there is light after dark.
Just as in this moment of unbelievable pain of being apart from a precious person or people, we will rise again to greet the sun, to hear the birds and to grasp life and live it to the full.
It is a season of hope and renewal.
Yes, those memories of that Easter are still ever present, and I know how fragile relationships can be, but here we are now reunited and ever grateful for the here and now.
No time for regrets of years lost.
Like many others I will be lucky enough to spend time in my garden, which is my sanctuary, to plant seeds is to believe in tomorrow.
Always remember the sun will always rise.
“There has to be Good Friday, for there to be Easter Sunday.”
