Calendar – Be The Best.

I wrote a post with that same title, ‘Easter Sunday, and so it begins’ on Easter Sunday 2010.

Although over a year has passed and we’ve marked a year from Chris passing date and service date, today marks a very important milestone as well.

Since beginning this blog last Easter Sunday, individual blog posts have been read over 127,000 times.

I get that most people still to this day don’t really know what to say or how to say it. But as therapeutic as writing these posts day after day and week after week has been, it’s been amazing to know that a silent army stands alongside.

I love that.

I read with interest an essay in the Vancouver Sun over morning coffee yesterday.

It was titled, ‘The Biology of hope bolsters Easter’s central message’. I’ve linked here if you have time to peruse.

I love this little excerpt:

These definitions make clear hope should not be confused with blind optimism.

When we are suffering or fearful, our hopes may often be dim, but they must include reasonable expectation.

Hope is distinguished from mere wishing. We can wish for financial wealth, or a cure for our loved one’s cancer, a dictator to be vanquished or a sudden end to global warming. But sometimes wishes are not realistic.

“Wishing are words and left brain,” Vaillant writes.

“In contrast, hope is made up of images and is rooted in the right brain. Wishing on a star takes no effort. Hope often requires enormous effort and shapes real lives.”

The transcendent quality of hope points to why researchers are coming to realize it is not only an emotion. It is a virtue.

As such, it must be cultivated, especially when times are toughest.

When I wrote the post, ‘Hope is an action word’, Chris’ amazing friend (who’s name is Hope) wrote a fantastic comment. It simply said, ‘I am Hope’.

Yes you are. Hope…you are Hope!

If you don’t mind, we are trying to be a little Hope-like ourselves!

The thing that really struck me about this article in the Sun was that in order for Hope to be Hope and not just a wish or dream, is that it required ACTION.

HOPE, DECISIONS, ACTION.

As I said on Friday, it’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming.

Of course Sunday is here for Easter 2011, but we wait and live with HOPE for our next ‘Sunday’ with Chris whenever that will be.

The circle of life…I mean gingerbread.

Do you really need an explanation?

It’s the circle of life. The smaller species eats gingerbread, which in turn becomes prey for the larger cousin…I mean species.

Ok, there was a bit of encouragement from the part of the photographer, but I love this pic.

Ingrid had a great idea that we’d have teams building gingerbread houses. What could go wrong?

Editorial comment: We tried this once with our Marketing group at BCIT. Wow. One group built a gingerbread brothel…but I digress. Ladies of the evening built out of gingerbread…yah, what could go wrong indeed!? (excellent creative skills…just need some guidance from time to time…) 😉

We had no such incidents at our most recent building event.

These were great houses and Ethan and Max built the one you see above.

It was a fun way to add a positive memory and experience to our Christmas gathering.

That wife of mine…always the good ideas!

As the calendar flies so quickly away from Christmas into the New Year, these houses will become a fun memory of Christmas 2010.

We couldn’t go a minute without thinking of Chris. He would have loved this event too and probably somehow worked a lacrosse theme into his gingerbread house.

The new normal includes great memories of the past with Chris and everyone else and new experiences too…maybe that IS the circle of life after all.

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