Author Archives: Dawna

The Easter Bunny:

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Happy Friday,

How are you all doing on this amazing Friday evening? What a beautiful day it’s been. Can you believe how amazing the weather has been this week? Hard to believe we are expecting tons of rain and in some areas folks will be getting a little bit of snow over the next couple of days.

As promised, today we’ll be chatting about the Easter Bunny and how he found his place within the entire holiday.

According to History.com, the Easter Bunny or Hare, “originally played the role of a judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behavior at the start of the season of Eastertide, similar to the “naughty or nice” list made by Santa Claus.”

Yesterday I shared with you that Easter was mentioned in the Bible in the book of Acts, chapter 12 verse 4, however, there is nowhere in the Bible that mentions the Easter Bunny, yet, the Easter Bunny has become a huge part of Easter.

The Easter Bunny is a huge part or prominent symbol of Christianity and is very important to the entire holiday. While the origins of the mythical bunny are unclear, we do know that rabbits are known to be “prolific procreators, which are ancient symbols of fertility and a new life.”

So, when did the Easter Bunny hop on the holiday’s scene? He first arrived in American in the 1700’s when the German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania. They brought their traditions of an egg-laying bunny who they called, Osterhase or Oschter Haws.

The tradition of the egg-laying bunny included children making nests so the bunny could lay it’s colored eggs. This tradition spread across the US and once that happened, the Easter Bunny not only delivered colored eggs, but he began to deliver chocolate and other types of candy and gifts.

Now that kids were getting more than just a few colored eggs, the nests they made began to fade and baskets in which they decorated took their place.

One thing that seems to be lost in the original Easter Bunny tradition is children leaving out carrots, just in case the bunny got hungry from hippity hopping around to al the children dropping off their Easter delights.

As far as traditions are concerned regarding Easter, there are no known links between the Easter Bunny and Jesus, other than, and this is a stretch, they are both tied to the holiday which is a celebration of a resurrection, and they both are symbols of new life.

When Jesus died and was resurrected, his death signified the washing away of our sins and the resurrection represented a new life. Not sure how the bunny fits into a resurrection, but we all know, bunnies seem to bring about new life and lots of it, quite often. This makes sense since the bunny is a symbol of fertility.

The Easter Bunny is a fun part of Easter and he brings so much joy to little ones. While he doesn’t really have any biblical ties to Jesus or the holiday’s meaning, it has become a tradition or symbol of Easter and one that brings so much joy to young ones.

Kids get up on Easter Sunday and can’t wait to find their baskets full of yummies and little ones certainly enjoy the tradition of hunting for the colored eggs their favorite bunny has hidden and left for them to find.

The Easter Bunny certainly has become an iconic part of the entire Easter holiday celebration, but wait, what about the candy, the Easter parades, the lamb and Easter Lilies?

Well, you’ll have to come back this weekend for those answers. I’ll make sure to look up some information to share with you.

I want to thank you for reading today’s blog and until next time, don’t forget, open your hearts, listen and evolve today++

What is Easter?

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Happy Thursday evening from my home to yours. I do hope this blog finds you well and safe.

I thought tonight I’d talk about Easter. In fact, I was thinking it would be nice to talk a little bit about Easter over the course of the next few days, after all, Easter will be here in 3 more days.

If your a religious person, or Christian, you probably celebrate Easter and you probably have an understanding of what the origin of Easter is, and that’s awesome. Seeing that we are so close to Easter though, I thought it might be good to refresh our minds behind the meaning of Easter and exactly what it is. Who knows, maybe we’ll learn something new about this much celebrated holiday.

I was scrolling google today to get a little more insight on Easter and this is what I found. On christmascentral.com it says, “like Christmas, Easter has roots in both Christianity and ancient pagan culture. Though it is mostly considered a religious holiday, many of our modern traditions are rooted in pre-Christian practices.”

Most religions do celebrate Easter. Some religions began the prelude to Easter Sunday back on Ash Wednesday, which happened to fall on Valentines Day this year. What is Ash Wednesday? Well, it’s the day when priests and pastors rub ashes from the prior year’s Palm Sunday palms on the foreheads of those in attendance at their churches.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent in which people are encouraged to find their own method of confronting their sins. They are encouraged to remember their own mortality, along with giving thanks for the salvation by means of Jesus Christ who gave his life and died upon the cross. People are reminded that Jesus died for our sins, then was resurrected back into the heavenly realm to sit beside his father.

During Lent, many people choose to give something up for 40 days. I knew someone in school back in the day who gave up soda, another gave up meat and I’ve heard of people giving up sex. Generally folks give up something they really love. This helps hopefully helps them by switching focus off self and onto the reason for Lent and the sacrifice made by Christ for all of our sins.

Lent ends during Holly Week, which begins with Palm Sunday. This signifies when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem and was greeted by palm branches. Just a couple of days later, is Holy Wednesday. Holy Wednesday recognizes Judas Iscariot with his plot of betrayal of our savior, but that’s not all, the next day is Holy Thursday, which represents the anniversary of the Last Supper to be followed by Good Friday, the day set aside to observe the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

All of these days or events that are observed, they are days to reflect on the days and weeks leading up to Jesus not only dying for us, but being resurrected. Easter is the day we celebrate Jesus being raised from the tomb. Easter also ends Lent for those who practice that custom.

I was told, Easter is mentioned in the Bible, however, I never saw it until tonight. In the King James Bible, in the book of Acts, chapter 12, verse 4 it reads: And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring.

Other versions use Passover instead of Easter, but I did find it interesting to see the word Easter actually mentioned in scripture.

So as far as Easter is concerned, where did it come from? Well, according to the same article in christmascentral.com, it says, “Easter actually originated as an ancient pagan celebration of the spring equinox. In Christianity, the day was dedicated to observing the resurrection of Jesus, which was celebrated around the time of the Jewish Passover. Eventually, early Christians merged their ceremonies with Jewish customs, thereby, recognizing Easter as “resurrection day.”

I suppose some of us look to Easter as a very important holiday, especially those of us who believe in the story of Jesus and the days leading up to his death and resurrection. For others, perhaps Easter is celebrated because of the joy of having family gather and enjoying the traditions that come along with Easter.

I’m not a religious person, not anymore, but I have found a new way of being close to God and that’s by becoming spiritual. I celebrate Easter and I do think about Christ and what he did for me. I know he died a horrific death and he died, not only for me, but for all of mankind. When I reflect on the gift Jesus gave to us by sacrificing his life, I want to reflect on it and how it’s benefited me and my loved ones.

I think we all sometimes get so wrapped up in the traditons, we forget the meaning behind certain things. In this case, it’s possible that we could get so caught up in the tradition, we fail to remember the reason.

“The very first Easter taught us this: that life never ends and love never dies.”-Kate Mc Gahan.

On that note, I’ll be saying goodbye for tonight, but be on the look out tomorrow. I can hardly wait to find out the origin of the Easter Bunny and the hiding and decorating of the Easter Eggs.

Are you curious too, well come on back and we’ll learn together, better yet, subscribe to my blog so you never miss an upload.

Hope you’ll come back and join me as I share what I learn about those two fun Easter traditions.

Until next time, open your hearts, listen and evolve today++

Who would I be….

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Happy Thursday,

How is everyone doing on this amazing Thursday afternoon? I do hope today is finding you well, safe and happy. I wanted to thank you for taking time to read today’s blog and I wanted to encourage you to follow this blog so you don’t miss new content, which will be coming on a more regular basis moving forward. Please feel free to drop me a comment and if there’s a certain topic you’d like to have me talk about, leave that in the comments.

Today I wanted to talk about something that is close to my heart. You see, not long ago, I was involved heavily in a cult and in that cult, I feared God. I feared doing anything wrong, not because I have ever been afraid to die, but I feared being destroyed.

I was taught that the God I worshiped at that time was one that expected me to be perfect, or as perfect as I could be. I was taught, or made to feel like everything I did in His name wasn’t good enough. I remember one minister giving a sermon saying, “are you sure your giving your all to Jehovah?” Is your all, good enough?”

With statements like that, from an early age, I felt I had to be perfect. I lived my entire life with the mindset, everything had to be just so. I think I developed OCD from being raised feeling like everything I did, wasn’t good enough. To top that off, I was born a girl. Women in the cult were taught to be in complete submission to men and with that came the underlying belief system, we were to be quiet and not voice our opinions, and if we did voice them, then our fathers, brothers, husbands, they were the final decision maker.

When I finally left the cult at the age of 45 years young, I left believing 100% that I was going to be destroyed by God. I believed that no matter how good of a person I was or tried to be, it didn’t matter, because I wasn’t living the life of a cult member, a member of the religion in which I learned to be terrified of our God and creator.

I’ve made some stupid mistakes along the way to finding grace in God. It took my mess ups to realize, God still was there for me and he had been all along.

With this blog, I want to help people realize that we have a loving creator and if you aren’t a believer, that’s okay too, I’m not here to change your belief system. I’m only hear to share my experiences and by doing so, I hope you find comfort in your own core belief.

On my journey to finding comfort in God, I have found that I can freely talk about Him and to Him. I can thank Him and not feel like I’m being fanatical. I enjoy waking up each morning and thanking God for a new day. I thank Him for all the provisions in my life and I thank Him for showing me the way. I always ask Him to keep guiding me. I thank Him for His forgiveness when I know I’ve fallen short.

I am beyond grateful for my new found relationship with God.

This brings to mind a beautiful song sung by Lauren Daigle. “Thank God I do.”

When I was at my lowest point, the point in my life where I didn’t feel loved by anyone, I had given up on life, my life. I simply didn’t care anymore. Then, John came along and he helped me find the relationship I so desperately needed and wanted from God and from a man. John became the man who showed me love and on that path, I began to see that I was capable of being loved, not only by a man, but by God.

“I’ve seen love come and I’ve seen love walk away. So many questions, will anybody stay? It’s been a hard year, so many nights in tears. All of the darkness, trying to fight my fears, alone, so long alone.”

What I didn’t realize, when John came into my life, was, he was sent by God to love me and in that love, I learned God loved me first and h=He made sure to give me a man that could help me past my fears. God gave me someone who was patient, kind, loving and compassionate, but most of all, He gave me someone to hold me tight, so tight that I could feel his heart beat and His love.

“I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You. I’d probably fall off the edge. I don’t know where I’d go if You ever let go, so keep me held in Your hands.” I think God holds me in His hands. He knows me better than anyone, so He sent me John. When John sees me spinning, he reminds me of his love, but more importantly of my creators love.

“I’ve started breathing. The weight is lifted here. With You, it’s easy. My head is finally clear. There’s nothing missing. when you are by my side. I took the long road, but now I realize I’m home with You. I’m home. I don’t know who I’d be if I didn’t know You.”

Though I doubt my worth from time to time, God is right there reminding me He’s there for me and when I can’t even begin to wrap my head around God actually loving me, He gives me the reminders that I so lovingly and desperately need. Who would I be if I didn’t know Him? Thank God, I do.

It is because God sent someone into my life, that I have learned not to fear Him. I’ve learned an entirely new way to talk to God. I’ve learned how to really build upon my belief in Him and though I fall short, He still loves me.

“You’re my safe place. My hideaway. You’re my anchor. My saving grace. You’re my constant. You’re my steadiness. You’re my shelter. My oxygen.”

I pray every day that I can continue to build on my relationship with Him and I pray He will open doors for me to share His word with others, but more importantly, I pray He uses me to share my experiences of overcoming religious trauma, so that others will come to see what a loving god He truly is. If it be His will.

As I conclude here today, I hope you found something positive to take away in reading this blog.

Until next time, I pray God will keep me and you held in His hands .

I do hope you are having the greatest of days and until next time, open your hearts, listen and evolve today++