From My Mind to....

Easter

I must be the world's worst blogger--I can't seem to post an entry with any regularity.    Still, I couldn't pass up today without a little trip down memory lane.

I'm not normally a spiritual person, although I do believe in God.  After all, how can one look around at the complexity and inter-connectivity of everything around us and believe this is all just an accident.  Maybe it's the DAY that sparks my thinking on things in general, and Easter does carry some very fond memories.

I spent a number of years living in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine, a small community about 30 miles north of Bangor.  Dad was career Air Force so we moved around ... a lot!  Before I moved to Maine in the 8th grade, I'd lived in seven different places. 

One of the things I did to earn a little spending money was delivering the Sunday paper.  I guess the Sunday paper nowadays is a little smaller with the advent of electronic media, but back in the late 60's the Sunday paper weighed more than a pound per paper.  Why I didn't choose to deliver the much smaller daily rag, I'll never know.  And I had 54 of those suckers to deliver ... on a single speed bicycle ... uphill.  Okay, that last was an exaggeration, but it seemed like it. 

Eastertime in Maine is normally rather cool since it occurs in late-March, early-April.  There was often snow still on the ground into May.  But one particular Easter Sunday, I awoke at 6 am to a warming, sunny day.  I prepared my papers, mounted the enormous bag on my handlebars balancing it to my smallish frame, and rode out of my driveway just before 7. 

Normally a very pragmatic 13-year-old, I was not given to great displays of emotion.  But as I rode my paper-laden bike down Main Street past the Episcopal Church, someone inside began playing the hymm "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" on one of those huge pipe organs. 

What a sound!  You could hear it all across town, the sound bouncing off buildings, and just resonating in your soul.  It may have been the first time I ever got goosebumps in such an experience.  It sure made delivering all those papers much easier.

Even now more than 40 years later, I remember that ride ... and that Easter ... when I hear that song on this day.  Whether you believe or not, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed Easter.