Every year I can count on it. By the time Easter Sunday arrives, the sun is in just the right place in the sky to awaken me each morning. Its bright sliver of light pierces through my bedroom window and beams right into my eyes.

I don’t need an alarm clock.

It used to annoy me. Now it comforts me.

After nearly 20 years in this home, it reminds me that no matter what the circumstances of my life, whether my house is filled with children and guests and celebrations or I am home alone enjoying the beauty of my backyard —

the sun will rise and wake me. Easter will come.

I can count on it.

Beyond the steadfastness of sunrises, spring has much to teach us. Nature, in all her glory, demonstrates the courage to relax in the mystery of what we cannot see.

Mark Nepo, poet, philosopher, and one of the deepest thinkers (other than my father, of course) that I’ve ever read calls it, “The Courage of the Seed.” In his book, The Book of Awakening, he writes,

All around us, everything small and buried surrenders to a process that none of the buried parts can see. Mark Nepo

How true! Oh, to be like the seed, to rely on unseen forces that will nurture us, sustain us and foster a growth we cannot imagine.

As my father often reminded me, especially when struggling through a difficult time with unclear choices, “BB, honey,”

Sometimes we have to trust the process. –Dr. R.F. Smith Jr.

Nature shows us that time and again, especially in spring.

And so spring reminds us to have the courage to surrender, to trust, and to be confident in the processes we cannot see.

Happy Easter! Happy Spring!

And on we go. . .

P.S. First time doing an IG live! Mandy has such tender and insightful questions! It was an honor to be with her.

P.P.S. Sharing two clips from a fun family tradition—the Easter Egg Crack-up Challenge—designed to see who has the toughest egg, or per below, the surviving egg! (Morning Fuel: April 14 for full instructions.)

Enjoy my family’s antics!

What were we trying to do here? In our Crack-up Challenge, one person holds an egg with one end up and tries to crack an egg held by another. The “winner” is the one whose egg doesn’t crack in the hand-to-hand contest – if you can survive a raw egg snuck in by a sneaky sister or a hungry dog.)

Sister Rachel’s trick:

Tripp’s mischief: