Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, April 8, 2023

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Mountain View News Saturday, April 8, 2023 

WALKING SIERRA MADRE - The Social Side

by Deanne Davis


Tomorrow is Easter, friends and neighbors, a time 
of celebration and joy. What Easter is really about 
is the fact that the stone was rolled away and there 
was an empty tomb. As the angel said, “He is not 
here. He is risen!” This is the amazing concept 
upon which many of us base our lives. A lot of us, 
including me, will still be live-streaming our Easter 
service, but, as always, it will be the most meaningful 
day ever.

Yes, we might have brunch reservations and be 
thinking thoughts of eggs benedict and a mimosa. 
But we might also still be remembering the Good 
Friday service that made us think long and hard 
about what actually happened the three days before 
Easter.

I’ve been remembering a wonderful, peaceful, reflective 
time walking through the stations of the 
cross with John up at Mater Dolorosa on a foggy 
morning and seeing deer wandering through the 
trees, sitting down for a few minutes on one of the 
benches and just ‘being still and knowing that He 
is God.’

This week before Easter has been kind of a hard 
one. April 1st would have been our 56th wedding 
anniversary. John is celebrating in heaven and I 
have been blessed with a tiny gift just outside my 
office window. I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s 
just such a sweet thing to see…a hummingbird 
started building her nest outside my window a 
couple of weeks ago and now she’s spending a great 
deal of time perched on there. The picture here last 
week was of her working on her nest. Watching her 
makes me smile. The oleanders are covered with 
pink blossoms, buds are bursting with new flowers 
and the world is beautiful after all the rain. It 
was also my birthday and my grandson, Brady’s 
birthday a few days ago but I’m ignoring mine and 
hoping everyone else I know will, too, while celebrating 
Brady to the max! He’s 8 and, like all other 
children his age, all he wants is a Roblox gift card. 
Yes, of course I got him one!

The stores are filled with Easter lilies, Peeps 
abound, enormous chocolate bunnies fill the 
shelves of the candy aisle at our supermarket; I’ve 
been given several chocolate caramel eggs – my 
Easter guilty pleasure - and there’s a Kohl’s commercial 
on every channel showing you adorable 
children’s Easter outfits you could buy. There are 
Easter egg hunts all over the San Gabriel Valley 
and, as always, the Sierra Madre Volunteer Firefighter's 
Association is hosting the annual Easter 
Egg Hunt today in Memorial Park complete with 
eggs, candy and the Easter Bunny for children 12 
years of age and younger. It starts at 9 am and the 
event is free.

Let me say it again, tomorrow is Easter! He is risen! 
He is risen, indeed! I hope this poem will help 
you see that first Easter through the eyes of Jesus’ 
friends. Their world had just been completely 
upended.

.

Before dawn…Easter Sunday…The sky was gray…
The world was hushed…

The women walked toward a tomb,

Jars of spices in their hands,

To tend the One, the One Who died, crucified that 
Friday.

The women walked, Mary Magdalene and another.

They walked and wondered, who would roll away 
the stone.

They stopped to rest, await the day, sad eyes filled 
with tears.

Sorrow for the One Who died, crucified that 
Friday.

Another dawn, another day, what did it matter 
anyway?

The one who loved her as she was, who changed her 
life, was gone.

They raised their eyes to see the sky, streaks of pink 
and gold.

And then they saw the guards were gone.

The stone was rolled away!

The grief they’d felt since Friday, like the stone, was 
rolled away.

They grabbed those jars of spices and running like 
a child,

Climbed that hill to tend their Lord.

Before dawn on Sunday.

They looked inside that borrowed tomb, petrified 
with fright.

An angel sat there on the stone, clothed in brilliant 
white.

“I know the One you seek,” he said, “Jesus, 
crucified.

He is not here, he’s risen! He’s risen, as he said.

Now go! And tell the others, He’s risen as he said.

Look not for the living, here among the dead!

He is not here, He’s risen, risen as He said.”

Joy broke free and hope broke free, 

Before dawn that first Easter Sunday.

May this Easter bring you closer to the Risen Lord 
than ever before and may joy and hope break free 
within you, too, as you celebrate the One Who is 
risen.

My book page: Amazon.com: Deanne Davis

Easter is here and “The Crown,”

My story about what happened to that crown of 
thorns Is now a real book in addition to a Kindle! 
Also available on Amazon.com

Still relevant, still thought-provoking, still 
uplifting.

If you want to check it out, here’s the link where 
you can see a short video:

https://youtu.be/Y_pC0X286T8

“Do not abandon yourself to despair. We are the Easter 
people and Hallelujah is our song.”

Pope John Paul II

“The great gift of Easter is Hope – Hope that makes 
us have that confidence in God, in His ultimate triumph, 
and in His goodness and love, which nothing 
can shake.” Basil Hume


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com