Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

There’s just something spiritual about this time of year. After the last round of thunderstorms, perfectly scrubbed spring beauty has emerged. As you drive around town you note the intense green of the grass, the cerulean sky, the colorful azaleas. In our yard, the irises are opening and the air is full of bird song.

I have found myself blessed in the last few days with other things that have lifted my soul and strengthened my hope.

It was my privilege to join in a fifty-voice choir this past weekend in a performance of Heather Sorenson’s Requiem, Mozart’s Lacrymosa, and Karl Jenkins’ “Benedictus” from A Mass for Peace. Singers from First Presbyterian, St. Mark’s Episcopal, and St. Peter’s Catholic churches worked together for several weeks to prepare the concert. An orchestra of nearly thirty instruments made the music even more powerful. (Notably, a majority of these gifted players were high school and college age.) I must give a special shout-out to Andrew Harry, music director at First Pres, who conducted. Andrew is a great example of a servant leader who mixes talent and energy with warmth and kindness. He is a delight to work with.

The Requiem is a new piece that was “Composed in memory of those lost to Covid; written to bring hope and light to the world.” Covid was a dark time in our recent past which we have, thank God, largely put behind us. (Too many people have already started to downplay its significance and refer to it as nothing more than a flu. Well, I know several people who died while they still had a lot of living to do or were hospitalized in critical condition during that first year. I can’t name a single person in the decades of my life who was hospitalized with the flu or died from it. Enough said.) Thank you, Heather Sorenson, for a magnificent, meaningful, chill-bump-inducing work of art.

On a secular note, my weekend began with a performance of “The Little Mermaid, Jr.” at LaGrange Academy. I was impressed that director Savannah Hunt and her cohorts shepherded nearly 80 students from kindergarten through high school ages through a well-oiled, fast-paced production of the Disney favorite. These kids in the spotlight will remember this experience for the rest of their lives.

And on a personal note, my little granddaughter, who entered the world at barely over a pound in early February, is approaching five pounds, breathing on her own, out of the incubator, and learning to take a bottle. Her parents’ spirits have been unflagging. She is most definitely the newest light in my life, and I give thanks for the miracle of her.

I’ll even say that it felt a little spiritual watching Rory McIlroy get his green jacket and his Grand Slam on Sunday. I’m not an avid golf fan, but I like Rory and Georgia’s Masters. Seeing him collapse in tearful relief and exhilaration when he won gave me a jolt of empathetic joy.

This week, Holy Week, is a walk through the darkness of the Garden of Gethsemane and the Crucifixion into the glorious light of the Resurrection. If you are able to attend other services (Tenebrae, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday) in addition to Easter Sunday, I highly recommend your participation. While we glory in the inherent rebirth of this time of year, we must not forget the darkness that makes the light more meaningful. We must remember those whose lives are much harder than ours – people in war-torn countries, people who have lost their jobs, people who lack health care, food, housing, and other resources. We can’t individually solve the problems of the world, but we can each look for ways to strike a flame of light into a dark corner somewhere close to us. Peace to you.