Dear Friends,
I have always had an Easter egg hunt with my two boys (young men now actually at 13 and 16), but just as a celebration of spring. I was raised Catholic by my very devout mother, and rejected it early on, so Easter has never been about Jesus rising from the dead around here.
This year, my young men and I did something a bit different- they hid eggs and chocolate for me to find! It was symbolic of them stepping into young adulthood and all three of us found it meaningful.
I found it was really fun to search, and really fun for them to watch me be oblivious to dark chocolate bars that were pretty obviously visible resting in the branches of trees, yet easy to pass by because I was just scanning the ground.
The very last of the 13 eggs they hid had been placed in the sack like hood of my older son’s hoodie- which he was wearing! Clever and creative and not something I’d have ever thought to do!
After the hunt, I presented them each with a bag of their preferred brand of unhealthy chocolate bars and also the coils of thin cotton rope they each need for braiding a roughly 16 foot long, four-strand braided rope. This rope is part of the preparation for the Manhood Ceremony they are each going to undertake this summer- hopefully! I’m inviting them to, not forcing them.
Meaningful Rites of Passage for kids becoming adults as their bodies change is an essential ingredient to being human that is severely lacking in the world today. In 2016 I was shown by my Spirit Guides that I am to be one among the many people working to bring Rites of Passage back.
I am only now beginning to step more fully into that work. In May I will be blessed with an opportunity to volunteer in a rites of passage for young women, as well as be part of a conversation with that organization about what rites of passage might look like for young people that are Queer!
Blessings and Courage
Betti