I created Living ROI as a passion, to share my experiences and support others who want to live more authentic, joyful and fulfilling lives.
Dear Friends,
Spring is a sacred time of year for many people. All the major religions have important celebrations: Easter (Christian), Passover (Jewish), Ramadan (Muslim) and Ramanavami (Hindu). These rituals all honor birth, re-birth, reflection and new beginnings in one way or another.
As the winter hibernation is thrown off, people gather to celebrate an annual opportunity for renewal. Beautiful ceremonies bring people together in many traditions.
I was raised Catholic and Easter was our most important holiday of the year. We would dress up, go to church and spend the day celebrating. Many holy days and traditions precede Easter: Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. The entire tradition is much more than one day and permeated my childhood at school and at home.
What I appreciate about having grown up in a religious faith is having a shared tradition that I could both push against and feel a sense of belonging to. When I meet someone who was raised Catholic, we immediately have hundreds of shared experiences and references that connect us. It doesn’t matter that I no longer practice Catholicism, I am still steeped in the culture of it.
When my oldest daughter, Emerald, was eight-years-old, and her little sister Marina was four, we moved to Spain for four months. We spent a few weeks in Spain the summer before the move, so the girls got to experience it. Emerald’s request before we moved was to get her ears pierced and get baptized. Most of the girls in Spain have pierced ears and the vast majority of the population is Catholic.
Colin and I were not practicing a religion, so we hadn’t baptized our daughters, much to the chagrin of my mother. That summer we did baptize both Emerald and Marina, and got their ears pierced too.
Our girls went to a public Catholic school in Spain and quickly picked up the language. Colin and I had met and were married in Spain, so we wanted our daughters to have that exposure.
Back home, Emerald and Marina’s Catholic education continued and they both received the next two sacraments after Baptism—First Confession and First Communion. I wanted them to have a taste of the culture, education and identity of Catholicism, even if they didn’t practice it.
This Easter morning, I was talking with Emerald, who is now 23, and she mentioned how glad she is that she feels a sense of connection with the Catholic Church. When she goes to a cathedral, she understands what it’s about and feels like she belongs. Each Spring during college she celebrated a traditional Catholic Easter with her roommate’s family in Philadelphia.
Emerald and Marina have also experienced Jewish traditions through their friends and appreciate the community and rituals. Yesterday, Marina attended a Seder with college friends. On Friday, Emerald attended a Shabbat Seder at the home of the founder of JewBelong.com, an organization that helps people find the joy, meaning, relevance and connection that Judaism has to offer.
Spring is a time of renewal for people and the earth. A time to gather together, celebrate, connect and be grateful. Religious and non-religious traditions of Spring help fulfill our common desire and need to connect, belong and grow.
How do you tap into community and experience the hope and promise of a new beginning that comes with this time of year?
