Passion Play

One thing that we used to do is attend a Passion Play together, sometimes before Easter, and often on Easter Sunday. For several years, a local church would perform one on Easter Sunday and we went there several years in a row. I thought it was a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday. This year, that church announced that they were "retiring" that tradition--they would just have a regular service. Just another changing tradition, I guess. Hopefully we will live in Florida next year--maybe we can find one there next Easter. There have been many things around here lately that have changed--whether it is a business being sold or a festival being canceled, life moves on. You know that feeling--when you ride by a place that you see every day, and one day it is gone or changed in a drastic way. It just feels--well, strange at first. It takes a while to get used to the difference. In the future, you might even forget how things USED to be because you become used to the way things are now. The idea of returning to the "old way" may no longer make sense--the new way isn't necessarily better, but it is the way it should be. I like the term "retiring a tradition". It isn't erasing the old ways--often the memories of the old ways are celebrated in a sentimental fashion--but the new ways are celebrated as much as the old. There are many things from childhood that my teens have now "retired"--we can give them a place of honor, but they HAVE to go--they cannot remain in our lives. Soon, I will have to make the ultimate "retirement"--I will always be their mother, but I will have to retire from my job of mothering them. I will honor the memory of my days of mothering--I have many photos. home movies, and scrapbooks to memorialize this time in my life. But soon I will have to retire and move on--they will be grown and will "mother" themselves. Seeing the retirement of each tradition brings me closer to that day. The good news is that there is a lot of life left in me beyond my "retirement from motherhood"--I've enjoyed it immensely, but I have big plans for my next stage in life. Retiring outgrown things, outgrown lifestyles, and outgrown traditions can be a good thing--it clears the way for the NEW and DIFFERENT part of life. I think I am almost ready! :)