Quotes from the Classics: May
We are in full swing, folks! The showers did in fact bring flowers and maybe some frenzy too. May showcases full-on evidence that we are alive - the bustle, the to and fro, the busy. There are coffee dates to be had, lighter clothes to pull out of storage, and plenty of weeds to pull and while I agree wholeheartedly with Wayne Dyer - “the difference between a flower and a weed is a judgment,” - I still spent three hours last week searching for lettuce and carrot sprouts.
We’re here, we’re alive, we’re excited AND we’re down on the ground, tending, sometimes taxed, and day-to-daying too. If you’re like me (the most introvertive extrovert any of you know), you couldn’t be more pleased about the sunshine and you might also be secretly dreading that dinner party or missing those quiet evenings of journaling and reflection. What a conundrum.
And, we’re off to the races! The showers did in fact bring flowers and maybe some frenzy too. May showcases full-on evidence that we are alive - the bustle, the to and fro, the busy. There are coffee dates to be had, lighter clothes to pull out of storage, and plenty of weeds to pull and while I agree wholeheartedly with Wayne Dyer - “the difference between a flower and a weed is a judgment,” - I still spent three hours last week searching for lettuce and carrot sprouts.
We’re here, we’re alive, we’re excited AND we’re down on the ground, tending, sometimes taxed, and day-to-daying too. If you’re like me (the most introvertive extrovert any of you know), you couldn’t be more pleased about the sunshine and you might also be secretly dreading that dinner party or missing those quiet evenings of journaling and reflection. What a conundrum.
No fear! We get to be both. We can be excited and expansive and abundant and also take care of ourselves. It just takes a little bit of adulting - not the 9-5 job adulting but the I-am-40-years-old-and-actually-this-is-my-life variety. We can be choicy and deliberate and work with this quickly rising May energy to do and make and be and grow whatever we want. We can listen to ourselves and be cognizant of when we need to take a break or move or drink some water. And we can leverage the dreaded NO.
I’ve heard this a million times before and still felt anxiety or the need to lie and make something up every time I was confronted with the need to say no. Of course, more self-Love was a game-changer and part of that journey included more focus on my yesses. My desires and wants are legit, gifted by the Universe, and really important to the thread of humanity. Sounds epic but I believe it now. If I hold my yesses that way, it leaves little room for stuff I don’t want to do. Think about it. “Guys, I can’t do the thing because I’m planning something cool for my new business! Or I’m doing this new meditation I found ! Or <insert other really fun, really exciting thing, requiring an exclamation point at the end of the sentence, HERE>!
It’s exponentially easier to say no when you’re excited about something else. So, what do you want? Who do you want to be? What do you want to create? Let’s be like the ants and get some stuff done, well, maybe with a little grasshopper fun too! Check out the quotes below that are certainly part of larger works but also capture May’s unique essence and energy, and also some things I would definitely say yes to. Enjoy!
Bee by Boris Smokrovic
“Come to the orchard in Spring. There is light and wine, and sweethearts in the pomegranate flowers.”
“She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! ”
“To see a World in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. ”
“And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.”
“Earth laughs in flowers.”
“Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven’t time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”
“It’s a spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want to—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”
Love in all things,
April Eileen
Quotes from the Classics: April
It’s Spring at last! Yet April necessitates patience and patience, by definition, is hard. Otherwise it would just be waiting. April provides an even more tangible promise of euphoria, while simultaneously requiring us to sit a while longer in transition. Our expectations begin to get the better of us. The snow has given way - well, usually (I’m looking at you Ohio) - but to what? There are days of warmth and sunshine to be sure, but very often there is rain and even a blustery reminder of the winter past. I hurry to my community garden plot to water my plants and keep them from burning up in near 90 degree weather, only to hurry back two days later to cover them and protect them from possible frost. “Gah!,” I project in my being. “Just hurry up and get there…arrive already,” my essence seems to say. But there are gifts here, in this space and time of year, to ease the hearts of even the most impatient.
It’s Spring at last! Yet April necessitates patience and patience, by definition, is hard. Otherwise it would just be waiting. April provides an even more tangible promise of euphoria, while simultaneously requiring us to sit a while longer in transition. Our expectations begin to get the better of us. The snow has given way - well, usually (I’m looking at you Ohio) - but to what? There are days of warmth and sunshine to be sure, but very often there is rain and even a blustery reminder of the winter past. I hurry to my community garden plot to water my plants and keep them from burning up in near 90 degree weather, only to hurry back two days later to cover them and protect them from possible frost. “Gah!,” I project in my being. “Just hurry up and get there…arrive already,” my essence seems to say.
But there are gifts here, in this space and time of year, to ease the hearts of even the most impatient. The sprouts and blooms make me happy, as do the bright shades of green that seem to capture light and life, not yet having matured into deep forests or emeralds or sages. My youngest daughter gleefully celebrates every time a new baby plant boldly reaches toward the sun, displaying itself in its egg carton cup, bound soon enough for the community garden. The rain offers peace and calm and all of nature takes a breath before an inevitable explosion of color and excitement. It all seems to tell of what is to come, while bringing joy right now. Such is April. Be patient my friends. Honor February’s fallow ground, lean into March’s blustery winds, look forward to the May flowers, AND enjoy life now in its visible state of becoming.
Check out some of these classic quotes about renewal, freshness, beginnings, growth, and Love. By the way, April means not only “to open” but is also named for Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love. How fitting. Enjoy!
Sprouts by Markus Spiske
“Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby”
“Beauty made you love, and love made you beautiful.”
“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”
“There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparell’d in celestial light
The glory and the freshness of a dream.”
“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love.”
“With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes, the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come… This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall… When the cold rains kep on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had dies for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always cam finally bit it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”
“In time of silver rain
The butterflies
Life silken wings
To catch a rainbow cry,
And trees put forth
New leaves to sing
In joy beneath the sky
As down the roadway
Passing boys and girls
Go singing, too,
In time of silver rain
When spring
And life
Are new.”
“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen
Quotes from the Classics: March
I often hurry March in my desire to get to Spring, overlooking the quiet beauty and rising energy of this month. It is a month of transition, of endings and new beginnings. It holds both melancholy and anticipation and suspends them together in wonder. It’s gifts come slowly in whispers at first and then all at once in celebratory cheers. It is a time of nuance and subtlety, begging us to tune-in and be surprised and delighted. I love how these writers capture the essence of this special moment in the year. Enjoy!
I often hurry March in my desire to get to Spring, overlooking the quiet beauty and rising energy of this month. It is a month of transition, of endings and new beginnings. It holds both melancholy and anticipation and suspends them together in wonder. It’s gifts come slowly in whispers at first and then all at once in celebratory cheers. It is a time of nuance and subtlety, begging us to tune-in and be surprised and delighted. I love how these writers capture the essence of this special moment in the year. Enjoy!
Snow on flowers by Facundo Sosa
“The Dandelion’s pallid tube
Astonishes the Grass,
And Winter instantly becomes
An infinite Alas”
“Daffodils,
That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty.”
“After that hard winter, one could not get enough of the nimble air. Every morning I wakened with a fresh consciousness that winter was over. There were none of the signs of spring for which I used to watch in Virginia, no budding woods or blooming gardens. There was only—spring itself; the throb of it, the light restlessness, the vital essence of it everywhere: in the sky, in the swift clouds, in the pale sunshine, and in the warm, high wind—rising suddenly, sinking suddenly, impulsive and playful like a big puppy that pawed you and then lay down to be petted. If I had been tossed down blindfold on that red prairie, I should have known that it was spring.”
“With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a season out of your life. This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason. In those days, though, the spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.”
“Spring drew on...and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”
“And the Spring arose on the garden fair,Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breastRose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”
Love in all things,
April Eileen