I love how every Sunday is a mini-Easter — a feast day set aside to celebrate the resurrection of Christ — and that the six Sundays during Lent are no exception. 

The season of Lent is more meaningful if I make a sacrifice.  So this year I decided to give up breakfast, easily my favorite meal.  This means I fast until lunch six days of the week.  And on Sundays, I feast with the return of breakfast.  Today I broke my fast twice.  I ate pancakes with my husband, then had a cup of coffee with Lara while she enjoyed her own short stack of cakes. 

While she was eating, I enjoyed hearing Lara talk about her new life in OKC.  Oh, she’s embracing it all with joy.  Every brand spanking new inch of it.  New job.  New home.  New friends to make.  She’s a special gal, this second-string daughter of mine.   Can’t wait for my first-string  ‘kids’ to meet her.

After Lara left, I worked in the garden with my husband.  Three short hours later, our front yard has been transformed into quite the looker.  With lawn mowed, weeds pulled, rose bushes trimmed and many, many Lirope now sporting a fresh ‘haircut’, it looks like spring outside.  Down on my knees, I could see all the new life bursting forth — baby mums, flower buds on my Spirea, green shoots of Lirope peeking through the dirt.  Is there any color lovelier than spring green? 

We ended the day cheering on the Thunder, as our players racked up another victory.  Talk about new life!  Our team has won 7 of their last 10 home games — and this one without their big stars.  Of course they remain last in their division.  But even so, this team looks different from the one I first watched in November.  The recent trades and the experience gained by our young players is starting to pay-off. 

My entire day was like watching some lovely mini-Easter parade — as I observed the new life in Lara, my garden and the Thunder.  I’m lucky to have snagged a seat so close to the action.  Because it let the joy of new life bump smack up against me.   It didn’t hurt one bit.