Visiting the Covered Bridge Festival this year felt so familiar. We drove out to Bridgeton through farmland and countryside, pulled into our usual parking place: a makeshift parking lot that will return to a field this week. We walked the main street, planning on what food we’ll need to taste and what knick knacks the kids must have.
There is a strong sense of familiarity. Everything felt the way I remembered from 2019.
Of course, that sensation, of looking back, invites the particulars into the conversation. Was that stand there last time? Where is the favorite breakfast place? Who is missing this year?
There is something human about this process – inviting nostalgia to come in and look around. Use our eyes to remember how things were before. What we loved and who we loved. What is changed? A tug-of-war for our emotions between sadness for what is gone and delight at what is new.
I’m reminded of the words in The Book of Common Prayer regarding the Burial rite:
The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy. It finds all meaning in the resurrection.
-BCP, p. 507
It further names that the challenge of burying a loved one in the name of Christ is an act of both mourning and hope. It is both. Like nostalgia and the pandemic.
What Easter are we experiencing now?
Drew+