Happy Easter! I wish you the hope of the Easter season—something the world desperately needs right now. 

Welcome to the 109^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. In addition to the hope of the Easter season, this week’s edition has good news on electric vehicle reliability, the sharing economy, and restoring the tiger population.

On my mind this week: Wishing you the hope of the Easter season

Happy Easter. Today, Christians around the world celebrate the victory of good over evil, love over hate, and light over darkness. The Easter season also gives us hope for a better future—something we desperately need right now.  

Pope Francis declared 2025 a jubilee year for the Catholic church around the world. The theme for Jubilee 2025 is “Pilgrims of Hope”—a very fitting theme for the times we’re living in. It’s a reminder for all Christians that, no matter how dark things feel in the moment, faith gives us hope for the future.

This most joyful and hopeful of all seasons on the Christian calendar is an opportunity for all human beings—Christian or not—to reflect and consider our impact on the world. Are we following Jesus’ example, or have we lost our way?

Living Christian values

For me, faith gives me values that guide my decisions and actions. As I reflect on what it means to be Christian, here are the values that come to mind.

• Generosity. Giving of time, talent, and treasure to make the world a better place.
• Peace. Finding ways to unite rather than divide.
• Compassion. Caring for the less privileged among us and fighting for a fair and just society.
• Respect. Treating all humans the way we want to be treated—regardless of race, gender, or religion.
• Humility. Accepting our own shortcomings and being open to learning from others.
• But above all, love. If we open our hearts and approach each day with love, the other values will flow naturally.  

Sadly, when I look around, I see a lot of greed, conflict, prejudice, arrogance and a general lack of respect for human dignity. What really saddens me is that much of this comes from “Christians” who hide behind their bibles to spread evil in the world.

The world is going through some dark times. But as Easter Sunday followed the darkness of Good Friday, may the hope of the Easter season restore light and love to our troubled world.

I wish you an Easter season filled with peace, joy and love!

P.S. Now that Lent is over, I can return to social media but I’m undecided. Honestly, I haven’t missed it at all. More on that next week!

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• I made maple tarts for our Alpha group on Wednesday. They were yummy and I wondered why I don’t make them more often. But I wonder that every time I bake anything.
• Earlier in the week, I saw several bright yellow gold finches at our bird feeder. I love how their colours change from a greenish-gold to bright yellow within a couple of weeks.
• Our church choir worked really hard to earn a new hymn, “At the Cross”, for Good Friday. At times, I wondered if we could do it, but we pulled it off!

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

EV reliability data

A German study of automobile maintenance records found that electric vehicles (EVs) were significantly more reliable than internal combustion engines (ICEs) of the same age.

In an analysis of their 2024 repair service data, the German Automobile Club found that ICEs between two and four years old were two-and-a-half times more likely to break down than EVs.

Take that you naysayers!

(Source: The Progress Playbook)

Wales “libraries of things” build the sharing economy

If the most eco-friendly product is the one we don’t buy, why do we continue to spend our hard-earned money on items we use once or twice a year?

Wales has a solution with 28 libraries of things located across the country. At the libraries, residents can borrow everything from carpet cleaners to power tools to pasta makers. Wales is the first country in the world to establish a national network of these sharing libraries that are quickly becoming hubs of the communities they serve.

Founded by concerned mum Becky Harford who first fought to save her local public library, this is an inspiring story of a small country making a big difference.

(Source: The Progress Playbook)

India’s tiger population doubles

Some good news for tigers this week. Through careful conservation over the last 10 years, the Indian tiger population has doubled. India achieved this by taking measures to combat poaching, protect habitats, and reduce human-wildlife conflict.

(Source: Happy Eco News)

This week’s simple living challenge – Try a buy nothing challenge

Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.

This week’s challenge is to try a buy nothing challenge—for a day, a week, a month, or even a year. I did a buy nothing challenge for Lent a couple of years ago. For inspiration, check out What I learned from the Buy Nothing Challenge.

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.