The driveway here at Sleepy Hollow filled up Saturday afternoon to accommodate a group of women who were joining Ma for a little Pysanky party. 

Pysanky is a Ukrainian tradition of decorating eggs with beeswax using a stylus. You fill the stylus with wax, melt it over a candle flame, and then draw on the egg like you would with an old fashioned pen and ink. Whatever you draw with wax will remain the color of the egg as you dye the egg in multiple colors, from lightest to darkest, ending with a dark purple or black egg covered in wax.

Gently melting off the layers of beeswax reveals the meticulously decorated egg.

It is an ancient tradition, and while it is now associated with the Christian holiday of Easter, egg decorating certainly predates this religion.

We have all thought a lot about eggs this year, but they have always been an incredibly important part of our species connection to the land. A high protein food source that doesn't involve killing the animal, it is little wonder that eggs have had a pretty significant role in human history.

In Christian tradition, one is to abstain from eating eggs during the season of Lent, the 40-day period of fasting leading up to Easter. The official justification is related to spiritual beliefs about avoiding rich and indulgent food. Practically, however, the backyard dinosaurs do need time to rest, and Lent falls during a time of traditional food shortages. And less need for egg production means less food for the chickens.

Not that the flock here at Sleepy Hollow is getting any less layer pellets. They keep pumping out eggs in spite of Lenten traditions, heathen birds that they are.

Whatever your religious beliefs, this is a pretty incredible time of year. Slowly, the world is starting to green. Snow fell this week, “fertilizer for the garden” I remember being told as a child. Watching the crocuses and snowdrops push their way through the April snow the other day, I believe it.

The rebirth of the land. Change and transitions.

I have been thinking a lot about transitions. My children are no longer little, they are independent humans, rapidly heading toward adulthood. For the first time, my daughter, who part of me still thinks of as the curly haired little girl in an Easter bonnet, will not be with us on Easter morning. She will be in Ireland on a Spring Break trip with a group of Camden Hills Regional High School students. 

My sons are full blown adolescents, with all the mixed emotions that go with that, vacillating between passionate, temperamental eating machines and the sweet boys that remain beneath the hormones.

My wife and I are solidly transitioning to middle age. She is pursuing a second career in a field that continues to baffle me, but I understand she is “killing it”. I continue in the job I have found for myself, where I do not have to answer to anybody but myself and my clients. It is pretty cool.

My brothers, my competitors in those Easter Egg hunts of long ago, are busy with their own families and careers and transitions of their own.

And Ma and Don, matriarch and patriarch of their families, seem to sit back and take it all in, witnessing the transitions of their children and grandchildren without judgement. They have both experienced all the transitions — adolescence, young adulthood, jobs, marriage, children, grandchildren, the loss of their spouse. Transitions are hard, but they are also inevitable, and it is better to embrace and influence change, rather than fight it.

So Ma and her friends gathered, decorating eggs in a manner that has existed for longer than can be historically remembered, munched homemade ginger snaps, and talked about whatever it is that ladies of a certain age talk about, as rain fell over a garden bed just starting to bloom with perennials. 

Spring is transition, and hope, and new life.

I will use some of those eggs the backyard dinosaurs have gifted me and mix them with matzo meal this afternoon to serve with the rich broth I made yesterday. The unleavened bread symbolizing a long ago people’s escape from enslavement, transitioning with the hope for a new life.

And there is nothing like a warm bowl of soup on a chilly evening in the early spring on the Coast of Maine.

Benefit Supper

Sounds like the supper for Kim Moran Saturday night was a huge success. While I did not attend, I got the lowdown from Ma, who went with Don for an evening of food and local music with the neighbors.

Ma and Don foolishly arrived at 5:30, half an hour after the the start time, to of course face a sea of people already seated and eating — Lincolnville folk should know to show up a half hour BEFORE a public supper is to start!

I didn’t realize Kim Moran herself cooked the meal — I love this — feeding the people who have come out to support you.

Who was there? A cross-section of this town, where political divides do not matter, just there to support a neighbor. This is where Lincolnville, where humanity, is at its best. We look out for each other, and we never know when we might be the one in need of support.

Kim is planning to build a new home and had no insurance — a costly endeavor. If you, like me, were unable to attend but still want to help out, please send a donation to Kim Moran, 20 Mass Pike, Lincolnville, 04849.

Easter Services:

Bayshore Baptist Church will host their sunrise Easter service at 6 a.m. at Lincolnville Beach followed by a 6:30 breakfast at the church and hiding of Easter Eggs. Their regular Easter service will be at 11 with and Easter Egg hunt at 12:10.

The Lincolnville UCC will hold its Easter service at 9:30 a.m.

Library:

Needleworkers will meet on Tuesday, April 15, from 3-5 p.m. All skill levels welcome.

On Wednesday April 16, at 6:30 p.m. there will be a presentation sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council "Does Anything From the Year 1776 Matter Today?"

And take your little ones to the library Saturday, April 19, for Spring stories and an egg hunt in the library garden!

Sympathy

To the family and friends of Preston Henderson, of Lincolnville, who passed away last week at Barbara Bush Children's Hospital after an 18-month battle with cancer. I knew Preston from his roles in Camden Hills Musicals, from Spam-A-Lot to Mama Mia, to his final role as the Minstral in 2023's production of Something Rotten. It sounds like he was a wonderful, talented young man. Love to all who knew him.

Okay Lincolnville, onto Spring. For Christians, it is the Holy Week; for Jews, we are in the midst of Passover. Transitions and hope.

Be kind and look out for each other. Let the spring rains wash away strife and negativity. Stick to your principles, but do it with grace. Reach out at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

Municipal Calendar

Monday, April 14

Recreation Commision, 6 p.m. Town Office

Select Board, 6 p.m. Town Office

Tuesday, April 15

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Wednesday, April 16

Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, 6 p.m. Town Office

Friday, April 18

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Saturday, April 19

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Sunday, April 20

United Christian Church, 9:30 a.m. Worship and Children’s Church, 18 Searsmont Road

Bayshore Baptist Church, 9:30 a.m. Sunday School, 11:00 worship, 2648 Atlantic Highway