Eastertide aka Paschal Time
The Mystery of Productivity
April 23, 2024. Volume 17, Issue 18
There are some mystery heart writings that I wrote 7 years ago. I’d like to share them again. This is the first, originally written April 17, 2017.
The Monday after Easter Sunday begins the mysterious season of Eastertide, in the Western Christian calendar. It is also known as Paschaltide or Time of Paschal. Paschal means relating to Easter or Jewish Passover. This is a very special time when we pay careful attention to what Jesus has done for us: Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and of course, Salvation, and Eternal Life. Death and life are very natural and happen around us all the time but Jesus walking around, living a human life after death and resurrection, before going back to Father God is a pure mystery!
As I reflected today, on the first day of Paschal Time, I felt released, again, from the burden of productivity. Yes, I'm talking about productivity as an economic measure because that's how most of us are valued in human society - in terms of what we make and what we contribute to the culture, progress, the capitalist, market society. Instead of feeling the need to produce something as a testament to not having wasted time (or talent, I watched the morning sunlight filter into my garden. I let the hours while away as I smelled the fragrances of the herbs and flowers. I enjoyed the birds flying in and out. I was so still that a hummingbird self-grooming, perched within a few feet from me, captured my full attention. How do we measure this bird's productivity? What is the value of the little hummingbirds? Remember what Jesus said about the value of a sparrow?
Life, I realized, is made up of a million mundane daily living tasks all of which can and should be fun. Except I'd somehow made living an endless stream of productivity chores too, instead of just going with the flow. Enjoying the moment. Finding the things I'd loved to do and doing them for the rest of my life. Neither productivity nor productivity gains count in the long run. How will you spend this Eastertide, this time of the Paschal? Will you rest and take time for healthy mind-body-soul self-care?
2024 Invitation: Music inspires us all, Annual Spring Concert, Circle City Chorale & Children’s Choir, 4 pm, May 4, 2024.