Easter egg hunts have a way of bringing out the competitiveness in kids. So we were all amazed as we watched the video to see the spirit of cooperation and caring that Emma and Sarah exhibited, even at such a young age. At one point, Emma found an egg and brought it to Sarah, saying “Here, Sarah. I have more eggs than you, so this one is for you.” And then later, Sarah was on a roll finding eggs and she brought one to Emma, saying, “Here Emma, I found two eggs, so you can have one.” Peter and I were completely silent observers in this scene. We’d not warned them to share, or to be fair. They had just cared enough about each other to do that instinctively.
I think I was drawn to watch those videos at that time because I was so shocked by Emma’s death that I had to check to see if my memory of our life together was accurate. Did I imagine that happy little girl who skipped and danced and sang through her days with us? Did I imagine that she loved and cared for us, and that she knew we loved and cared for her? What I saw in that video answered those doubts. It was as I remembered, in fact, even sweeter and better. Those Easter morning images brought her back to me in the way I had always though of her, the way I’ll always remember her.
That is my Easter story.
I looked out the window this morning, and I had a line of a poem in my head. The line is from a Robert Frost poem, and it starts out "Nature's first green is gold." I always liked the poem, but mostly for that first image. From a distance the new green on the trees does look gold. But today, the poem has the deeper meaning for me, the one the poet was really thinking about, that many of the best things in life are fleeting, and we have to appreciate them for as long as we can. Here's the rest of the poem:
ReplyDeleteNature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay
Emma was gold.