This delicate Rue Anemone is blooming along the edge of the woods here. Its range spans from east to west about a third of the country and comes in pure white or white with pink tints. I feel lucky to have the pink-tinted kind.
Rue Anemone is frequently found in the stories of ancient mythology and is sometimes called wind flower as it is imagined to open only in breezes and winds. But it further symbolizes expectation, which is lovely for the Easter Season we're in these days. I'm thinking of the priest's Mass-prayer, Libera Nos, prayed immediately after the Our Father. The old translation is linguistically more accessible:
Rue Anemone is frequently found in the stories of ancient mythology and is sometimes called wind flower as it is imagined to open only in breezes and winds. But it further symbolizes expectation, which is lovely for the Easter Season we're in these days. I'm thinking of the priest's Mass-prayer, Libera Nos, prayed immediately after the Our Father. The old translation is linguistically more accessible:
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
As we wait in joyful hope. Joyful expectation. And for the Christian this means: I trust that God has won. Remember the Easter hymn?
The strife is o'er the battle done;
Now is the Victor's triumph won;
Now be the song of praise begun:
Alleluia!
Death's mightiest pow'rs have done their worst,
And Jesus has his foes dispersed;
Let shouts of praise and joy outburst:
Alleluia!
He closed the yawning gates of hell;
The bars from heav'ns high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise his triumph tell:
Alleluia!
On the third morn he rose again,
Glorious in majesty to reign;
O let us swell the joyful strain:
Alleluia!
We live with the Easter myrrh-bearing women who came to the tomb at sunrise. Sunrise is symbolically the time of the greatest contest - a cosmic contest - when light pushes the darkness away. It is a time of great tension, but surety as well.
To live on this planet is to live in that tension. But if we believe that Jesus is risen from the dead in his body, that his Resurrection is not a hallucination or wishful thinking, then everything is different for us.
