Words With Russ

Welcome, my friends, to Words With Russ! This blog is dear to me as I have always been a poet and writer at heart, and I think it's fitting to share its inaugural post during Easter Weekend.  I have always felt the Easter holiday as a time of rebirth and renewal. Just like Fawkes the Phoenix in Harry Potter, each of us encounters the fires of renewal throughout our lives. These fires aren't literal; rather, they are the fire of the soul as it sheds off old ways of being in favor of a deeper experience of life.  The story of Jesus of Nazareth's rebirth after three days in the tomb is one as old as history itself. While I don't take this story literally, when I look at it through spiritual eyes, there is great meaning.  Matthew 28:1-10 says: "After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled b...