LOCAL COLUMNIST

Mayor’s moment: Finding new life

Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer
Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer

As I am writing this column it is Easter Sunday! The day we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gives us new life. Many may celebrate different ways with a variety of traditions, but ultimately, we are celebrating the same thing. Through His sacrifice we have new life! Today is much different from last year and some “new” things remain. We are grateful for what is new and what is now. We are blessed with the opportunity of new life.

As we continue to navigate through the newness of this year, we continue to reflect on the changes that were made last year. Many are continuing to coordinate outfits with face masks. Easter outfits were really no exception this year. We have moved forward with caution with organizing Easter Egg Hunts for the children maintaining social distance and providing little face masks for them as well! We are accommodating for Easter Dinner to ensure the crowds are not too large and that space is abundant. Easter Services are scheduled in venues to allow mass attendance with precautions in place for the parishioners to be able to focus on the true celebration of this beautiful day!

There is an air of the recovery of normal in the atmosphere! This Easter has the promise of “new” that this generation will appreciate for years to come. For those of us who have always believed that this situation did not catch God by surprise and that all things truly work together for the good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose, this Easter is not much different from any other year. We are just a witness to how all the things we have gone through, both good and bad, have worked together for good. Much of last year is now a blur filled with bad memories of the struggles and strains of adapting to the pandemic. It is also consumed with efforts of communities coming together to aid each other through daily practices and inventing ways to celebrate in nontraditional ways. We learned how to beat the odds by working together and believing that there would be an end to this soon.

Many of us are more at ease with the knowledge of being fully vaccinated at this point. We recognize that even with the removal of many mandates we are still focused primarily on doing what we need to do now so that we can do what we want to do later. Normal, although it may be new, is closer to us now. A year of change that started off being a prediction of weeks or months, has taught us that we can truly do the impossible!

So today I am grateful! As your Mayor I have endured the highs and lows with you all. Last year was a very uncertain time, but like many of you, I found strength in knowing we were always in the hands of an all-knowing God! My prayer continues to be that we work together for each other. It is not a new concept, but we now possess a new vision. The best way to celebrate new life is to live in a newness of gratefulness!

Veronica Smith-Creer is the Mayor of El Dorado. She can be reached at [email protected].

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