And it is officially here. Spring of the year is well underway, and Easter is Sunday. This means, likely, the threat of cold snaps is over so you should be getting your flowers and vegetables in the dirt.
I’ve driven a few thousand miles across Texas over the past couple weeks with my day job at the university. I can attest that the blue bonnets and Indian paintbrushes are sprouting up across the roadways and prairies. The pollinators are pollinating and the hummingbirds are stopping off for dinner and rest on their way back north. The circles and cycles of the seasons persist and it is springtime in Texas. The cottonwoods will soon be shedding, and high school graduation will be here before we know it.
So, in the busyness and bustling of the springtime season, I urge you to take time Sunday and enjoy each other.
To those of us in the Christian faith, Easter is a time of rebirth and renewal. It reminds us of our unlimited possibilities. Rebirth and renewal are not themes exclusive to the Christian faith though. It behooves us all to enjoy the time of reflection.
I remember the Easter gatherings of my youth. I remember the colorful eggs and the toys and the adults visiting on the porch.
Some years ago, Jennifer and I assumed the mantle of hosting the family Easter celebration at our house. We will again this Sunday.
The kids are getting older, so the toys and gifts have changed, but the conversations on the porch are still the best. I remember well an Easter conversation on the porch a few years ago with my Aunt Melba. It was Easter of 2022.
The kids were playing in the yard and she and I were talking on the porch. She recalled the Easters of her childhood.
She was born in 1926 at Gordonville. She was the baby sister of my great-grandfather. Her parents, Henry and Maggie Lewter, lived their entire lives at Gordonville. They farmed there. They raised a family there.
Aunt Melba lived through times of great advancement in our culture. She grew up in a house with no running water, no electricity and no modern appliances. She said she could remember the first airplane she ever saw. She was a little girl when a crop duster landed at Gordonville and folks came from miles around to gawk as if it were a UFO. At the time, I suppose it really was a UFO.
She came of age in the years just after the second World War and married a GI whom she met while he was stationed at Camp Howze in Gainesville. Aunt Melba and Uncle John forged a life, and a love story, together. He was the son of an immigrant Pennsylvania coal miner and her— the daughter of a Texas farmer.
They never had children of their own. That wasn’t in the cards for them. Instead, we were their children. They had four generations of children— from my grandfather down to our own children.
Aunt Melba was a grounding force in our family and I miss her.
That Easter we spent together on the porch in 2022 was our last. She passed away the following February at age 98. I saw her just days before she died. We had another Easter-like conversation. This time, in her room at the assisted living facility. We shared a piece of carrot cake and had coffee together and she told me more stories about when she was a little girl. Some of them, I had heard before. But it didn’t matter. I wish I could hear her tell those stories just one more time. The stories of the way things were and the way things should be again.
Who are those people in your life that ground you? Be thankful for them.
Who are those family members that bridge generations? Cherish them while they are still here.
Who are those family members with whom you miss Easter conversations on the porch? Enjoy those conversations, for this year could be the last.
In your time of reflection this week, think about the lessons learned on the porch and strive to carry on those conversations for the next generation.
Tell an old story. Honor someone’s memory.
As the author John C. Maxwell said, “Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.”
Enjoy the great insight that can come from conversations on the porch.
Austin Lewter is the owner and publisher of the Whitesboro News-Record and director of the Texas Center for Community Journalism. He can be reached at [email protected].