P is for Peepers.
Easter is around the corner, and while our children are mostly focused on the sweets (chocolate bunnies and those gluey marshmallow confections known as peeps)… my heart is swelling with the sound of peepers.
They’re back! One of my favorite signs of spring’s arrival is the staccato chirping of the small chorus frogs known as spring peepers. On a recent warm evening at our neighborhood playground, as the light lingered and the breeze rustled, the sound of new life crescendoed once again. Do you hear that? I asked the children, and suddenly we all got still.
Such a strong sound from such a small source! These tiny little fellows, smaller than a quarter, necks a throbbing bubble, join their voices in echoing calls, longing for a mate. Life calling to life! This, to me, is the springtime soundtrack of “life’s longing for itself” (as the poet Khalil Gibran put it in his poem “On Children.”)
Maybe a local, small town faith community like ours is a little like a chorus of spring peepers. Small but mighty. Reliably attuned to the rhythmic cycles of nature and calendar. Longing for a world of connection. When we join our voices in chorus, we sing a song of hope that fills the skies. And we remind each other to pause and listen and bask in wonder.
There’s a lot out there to drown out sounds of hope — noisy jet engines, endless news cycles of war and escalation, daily exhaustions. We hope this Holy Week, this spring season, this moment in your own life’s unfolding… you will take time to join us as we pause, journey through old stories of suffering and hope, death and new life, and listen for hope’s renewing call.
Do you hear that? Life’s longing for itself?
Happy (almost) Easter, beloved friends,
Kit and Nate
