For those of you celebrating this holiday, let me begin by saying I hope you had a happy Easter! It's such a fun day with the egg hunts, baskets of candy, and dyed eggs. I would go so far as to say that Easter was one of my favorite holidays as a kid; it's just incredibly fun. I still think that, but I also think Easter makes no sense.

I could drone on for hours about the inconsistencies of religion, but I personally doubt every piece of written history because of the inevitable details left out (After all, not every moment in time can be written down objectively on pieces of paper and saved for thousands of years.) But, that's frankly not the point of me writing this piece, and hating on other people's religious beliefs has never been something I could condone.

So let me first introduce my perspective of spirituality before I delve into Easter itself. I was raised going to church most weekends at an Episcopalian church in my town. When I was 8 years old, my grandma passed away, and I had a lot of questions that naturally come with a loss that big. (I still miss you everyday, Mammy!) But I always had this unspoken faith that there was some larger entity that I couldn't see pulling all of the events of the world into its own cohesive chaos; I just started severely questioning whether that entity was the same "God" I had been taught about all of my life. Years passed, and in school, my classes taught me about other religions like Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism. I feel like I should mention that I was raised by a liberal family in New Jersey, so it wasn't like I was sheltered; I just had no other real way of learning how other cultures of people were dealing with the same aspects of existence and nonexistence that I found myself questioning at that age. Without too much detail of how I arrived at my decision: I struggled with a lot of things and questioned the institution of organized religion as a whole, and now I identify as a Buddhist. As much as I may dislike and disagree with the world at times, I believe that there is necessary suffering in the world and that we are reborn into it until we each, as individuals, can escape the ignorance and become at peace with the universe, becoming a portion of its entirety.

I recognize that these beliefs may seem radical to some people and outrageous to others, but there is a far more important belief to recognize: mutual respect and the spread of love. People have heard of karma, yes, but there is so much more to that concept, and nobody ever wants to speak about it. What I mean is this: every organized religion, no matter what their view of the afterlife, preaches affection at its core. And as much as I think the history of Easter makes little sense and that the cultural practices like eggs couldn't match to the teachings of the Bible less, the love behind the holiday is what I love so much.

I don't know about you, but I love the warmth of the kitchen from the ham baking in the oven, and I love the people in the kitchen cooking that ham. I love the colors and the struggle of perfecting the most artsy Easter egg at the table, and I love the laughter that is bound to erupt every few minutes during that friendly competition. I love hiding those useless, plastic carcasses filled with chocolate so that I can see the people I love erupt with joy after finally finding their last one just as much as I like ending the frustration by finding my own last egg. I may not go to mass, sing hymns, or even pray anymore, but I still look forward to Easter every year. Because I look forward to the glorious smiles I know will surround the table.