Easter: A demarcation of Bear Paw seasonsHowdy Beaver

Easter: A demarcation of Bear Paw seasons

Howdy Beaver

One of our favorite times of year is Easter. In this land of such definite seasons, Easter always marks the change from a long winter to a time of spring, rebirth, and sowing the seeds for a harvest far away.

For some reason when we think of Easter, we think of old-timers who homesteaded in the beautiful Bear Paws. We can see young children going out to hillsides strewn with purple crocuses or pasqueflowers, picking them and bringing them in to a tired mother who, as she changes the flower pedals to dye, sends her children to the chicken coop to gather a few eggs. Before long, the family has beautiful purple eggs as a part of its Easter celebration. Or maybe a mother and father do all that dying in the dead of night, then hide the colored eggs on the hillside under trees for their children to find Easter morning proof once again that there is an Easter bunny and he visited their isolated homestead way up Cowan Coulee on Clear Creek.

And for some reason, Easter always reminds us of meadowlarks. How blessed we are to have those wonderful birds on our prairies and mountain meadows. Their song is so wonderful. We think of small homestead children listening to the meadowlark's song and heading out to rid the country of a few gophers and getting paid for doing it.

The meadowlark's song is some six distinct notes going da, da, dadadada. We would have to whistle it for you to get the mood. But anyway, the meadowlark's song is saying, "Gophers, three cents a tail." Now we don't know why we think about that this time of year, but we do.

Mostly, though, we think of that great compact that we are a part of. It starts at Christmas, continues through Easter and is as grand a promise as those rainbows after a Beaver Creek rain.

That makes us think that the good Lord is telling us of life everlasting in every buttercup and roosterhead that pops out of the cold ground this time of year.

So when we get to church on Easter Sunday and hear that great old hymn, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," why, we have already heard it that morning in the trees, the clouds, the mountains, the aspens and the meadowlarks that greeted us as we stepped out of our door. Could there ever be a better land than this? Could there ever be a better promise and compact?

From us and ours to you and yours, a very happy and meaningful Easter.