Spring & Hope!

It's hard not to feel hopeful when it's finally so incredibly, lusciously, scintillatingly beautiful outside. And warm - sigh (52 degrees :)) Ahhh, spring! It makes me giddy just to wake up in the morning. It makes me giddy to hear the cardinal with its saucy chirp, to breathe in deep the smell of thawing earth, to feel the sunlight - glorious, warm sunlight. What a Sunday!

We started the morning making a usual Sunday breakfast feast - sausage and pancakes - while listening to NPR. In honor of her 80th birthday, Lynn Neary interviewed Maya Angelou:

Neary: "What does it mean to you that, in your own lifetime, you're seeing this election where both a woman and a Black man have a real shot at the White House."

Angelou: "It's so exciting! And you know, I had someone ask me, 'but things haven't changed, have they?' Please! Are you kidding? Things have changed. We have to admit that we've come a long way, so that young people would not be encouraged to say, 'you mean to say, with the lives and deaths of Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X, and the Kennedys and Mahatma Gandi, you mean to tell me things are no better? Well then what's the point of me trying?' Young people must be told, yes, things are better. Not nearly as good as they will be when you put your shoulder to the wheel."

Hearing this statement of hope felt just the same as walking outside after breakfast, feeling the sunshine, the warmth - a new lightness spreading through me. Yes, things are getting better. We have a lot of work to do, but we must also celebrate the accomplishments, celebrate spring.

We played outside all day today - our first day of the season climbing on real rock. I still feel the sun on my face and the delightful weariness from a day in wind and sunlight. I still feel hope burgeoning within me: "yes, things are better. Not nearly as good as they will be when [we put our] shoulders to the wheel." But things are better.