Ash Wednesday has passed, the season of Lent is underway and Easter is around the corner.

Easter is the time we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and with it the celebration of the renewal of life that comes with spring. There is also a non-religious side.

We celebrate Easter with seasonal spring meals like salads and ham (I hate ham) and goodies — cookies, chocolate, jelly beans and those delectable marshmallow goodies called “Peeps” that come in the shape of baby chicks and as rabbits. But the king of the goodies is chocolate, and lots of it. Marshmallow eggs, chocolate rabbits, eggs with cream centers and then there is the king of them all — the Gold Brick Egg.

The Gold Brick, made by those marvelous chocolatiers at Elmer’s Chocolate in New Orleans, is pure heaven. The only thing better is the elusive dark chocolate Gold Brick. You unwrap that foil wrapper and see that brown oval and the mouth begins to water. You put it in your mouth and the chocolate just melts. It’s my one true addiction. Elmer’s makes other candies synonymous with Easter, like the Heavenly Hash Egg, but it ain’t the same.

Looking back on it now, my girlfriend in high school got me hooked on the Gold Brick. We were dating during Easter and she mentioned (actually stated) she wanted a Gold Brick Egg. At that time, the Gold Brick Egg was a large foil-wrapped chocolate egg with small, individually wrapped Gold Bricks inside. I gave it to her Easter Sunday, she let me try one and I was hooked.

For the sake of honesty and full disclosure, I am a 100 percent, hard-core chocoholic. I love chocolate and I start shaking when I walk past a display of Hershey bars. But the Gold Brick is something special and every year around Easter I start looking and anticipating stocking up. My wife and daughter, who are also hard-core chocoholics, are my enablers when it comes to Gold Brick Eggs. They help me in my search to find the eggs.

Usually, I have a hard time feeding my graving for Gold Bricks because they are so popular. This year, however, I got lucky, finding a carton of Gold Brick Eggs at a local store and I grabbed beaucoup packs. I handed them to my wife (who doesn’t like Gold Bricks) to hide, so I won’t be tempted to consume them all before Easter.

But before I sign off on this column, let me return to the religious aspect of the Lenten season.

In this time of conflict, we should take time to look at ourselves and the world and as we each in our own way prepare for the feast of the resurrection, remember those who are suffering in Ukraine because of the whims of a cruel and possibly demented individual. Let us pray that cooler heads in Russia will prevail and that other nations will not have to take military action to end the conflict.

In 40 days, we remember the resurrection of a man who came as a child to teach the people of the world to make it a better place. Let’s remember that.