May this happy Easter bunny jump straight over the rainbow and into your heart!

Happy Easter Bunny (Ink & water colour on A4 water colour paper + digital text added) by Imke Rust ©

I do not really celebrate Easter and have always found it quite odd how the Christian story of Jesus’ death and resurrection was combined with colourful eggs, chocolate and cute bunnies… But I guess as long as it has meaning and importance to somebody, it is cool, and it is good to have rituals and reasons to celebrate.

Possibly my inquiring mind too often asks ‘Why?” and is not easily satisfied with the ‘normal’ answers if they do not make sense to me. And I am puzzled by how many people never even ask this question, or are just too easily satisfied with the often superficial answers or reasoning.

Actually I do like rituals and the whole original idea behind them. So I thought to share with you an Easter ritual which I found quite cool:

Collecting Easter water in silence…

A few years back I had the privilege to celebrate Easter with some friends in Germany who had a very special ritual. We had to get up some time before sunrise (a real challenge especially in the cold weather) and go to the forest to find a natural spring. All this time nobody was allowed to talk or say anything – which made me be very aware of everything we did and contemplate the energy of the spoken word. Somehow it felt really sacred, and I think that it focused the attention strongly on the intention, instead of dispersing it with too much ‘mindless chatter’. I do believe that words are a strong creative force and whatever we say has an impact on our reality.

At sunrise everybody collected some fresh water in glasses which we brought along and took some of the water to sprinkle over us and wash our hands. The water which was collected is called Easter water and will be kept in the house for the whole year as a kind of protection and blessing – it is supposed to stay pure and fresh for the whole year. Only once the water has been collected and the sun has risen, everybody stands in a circle, hold each others’ hands, say grace and blessings and wishing each other a ‘Happy Easter’. Somehow I really liked that.

Happy Bunnies

For today I decided to share with you my ‘Happy Easter Bunny’ to bring you a smile and some happiness. And to remind us all, of how grateful we can be. This bunny is the weirdest looking creature, rather ugly in a way and surely not able to hop along in a graceful manner with those legs – but still, it seems to be so happy and full of lightness, radiating warmth and love and not caring a single bit about the outside circumstances. I wish that he may pop up in your minds and hearts whenever you feel down, lonely or insecure and remind you look for the beauty and blessings in even the darkest moments.*

So, wishing you all a very happy Easter bunny and enjoy the weekend and celebrations – remember, there always is something to celebrate 🙂

* For everybody who wonders how I work or come up with the images:

The birth of the Easter Bunny

Often I just put my pen to paper and start drawing whatever comes to my mind – in this case I saw an image of an owl and started to draw the eyes. Then I am guided by the drawing and somehow it tells me what to do next. I do not consciously think about it, but just follow what feels right. Being very rational, it is often really difficult to let this happen, because my mind tries to tell me stuff, like: ‘you drew owl eyes, so this must become a bird’ or ‘this is really ugly, you can’t do that’, ‘this is not the kind of legs a bunny has…’. I try to ignore the critical voice of my mind and just follow my heart and eye and am often really surprised by the outcome and the insights I get from the process and the final image. It is as if a kind of dialog happens between me and the creature that I create. If you are interested to read even more about my art making process, you might want to look at one of my earlier posts “…and sometimes they tell me their names“, which is still very popular and insightful.