Rain, Mud - and One Spring Week

Rain...again! After 3 inches for the past two days, we are now getting more rain. All the seeds for my garden I planted are washed out, and most of the ones I've had in pots are so water logged that they look awful. But I have to say the grass sure is green!

I am beginning to think that we will end up looking like Ireland if this rain keeps coming down. I have gotten some lovely small tulips that I planted last fall blooming and they are a gorgeous yellow, and right beside my abundant daffodils my back door is quite inviting. So there is a bright yellow spot just outside my door.

So if you're awash with the muds and puddles from spring rains like I am, I hope you can find the small wonders too!!

Rain, Rain - Give Me A Few Days Off!

Almost 3 inches of rain in two days...and now it is finally beginning to dry out. For the moment, that is! I've become a recluse bound to the house by the constant rain clouds and sheets of rain that has become a constant companion in these past few weeks. We have had a few days of gray with no rain but not enough to get much done outdoors, and so the greens of spring are beginning to cover those grays and browns of last summer.

To say I am chomping at the bit to get that dirt between my fingers is a bit of an understatement! I have some flowers blooming already and the leaves of the summer additions are ready to enter as the weather gets warmer but there is a lot of work to be done before that happens.

Tomorrow will be the day for trying again. They say that the only dry days this week will be Wednesday and Thursday, I am going to hope there will be time to actually be out in my own green living room. In fact I'm going to believe it!!

Frustration With Those Who Have All The Answers

I respond on many online chat places to questions or thoughts. One such is a center for women's thoughts and ideas (But there are a few great guys there too!) and we have a lot of back and forth over issues and what's going on in the country.

It's funny how so many do not see this economic mess as anything more than a classroom where we might exhibit what ideas we've all been taught over the years. An example would be the response over a question about what might be the gifts we can find in these times of trials.

There are way too many pie in the sky type of answers from people who have never suffered financially in their lives! "It's a growing time you will learn from," and other typical response can be hugely frustrating. Right now, many are suffering and are any of us reaching out? No, it's easier to go all philosophical, stay uninvolved and not look hard at what may shortly face you!

It can be really frustrating.

Strange Seasons

It's almost hump day! It's not been a quiet rainy week thus far. Cold too, but I hope that we will finally have spring after tomorrow. That is what the weatherman is promising so after the snow today I really hope he's right! The winter seems to be wanting a dramatic return despite the calendar's certainty that it is spring time! After all aren't April showers (Not snow showers!) suppose to bring May flowers? It has been a strange winter, and spring is beginning to show signs of the same pattern.

I certainly hope this summer will not be as strange.

Voices of Freedom

What happens when a voice is silenced?
When one person who writes no longer has that personal tone
and purpose in words or thoughts?
It's almost like that falling tree in the forest
That is no more and that crash that extinguishes
That final flame
Is actually a loss for hope.

Honest and true words
Are being held captive around the world
and those voices hold the keys to freedom,
and real speech
instead of echos of times long past.

A Simple Query About Writing

I'm working on how emotions actually affect the ability of a given author/reporter/columnist to write well. When we look at Poe (As in Edgar Allen...) he seemed to produce such painfully raw pieces that can hurt emotionally and one wonders if the life filled with many painful intervals actually affected what he wrote about?

If you look at Stephen King and his books that doesn't seem to prove true, but Poe was known for the things that drove him (i.e. the death of a young wife and his childhood.). So if painful experiences haunt us, will that drive who we are as writers, and what we actually write?

Easter Eventide

Today is Easter Sunday, and I had many pictures that are filling my brain and overflowing into my times of quiet this evening. There are pictures of my church regaled in the beauty of the season and being surrounded by friends there as we sing and raise voices together.

Special views of my grandchildren excited because of a late afternoon visit that always comes with gifts and Easter candy this time of year...of hugs that share a space with quiet conversations as we put our heads to come up with a plan about who will be coming over first, (and when!) for the week ahead.

My thoughts are filled with images of this night as well - on what the week holds for us, and all that is to come both planned and unplanned.

The beginning of a new week and the end of an old one can often be very good.

Tonight is For Memories...

Tonight,

I am alone in the quiet of a room

Filled with memories and shiny smiles -

With dust and stories that are old

Friends.

In this moment

I am filled with the room,

And though the dust haunts

My every breath,

It to is a friend

Through musty scents

Of Words,

And reminiscences.

Growing Spring

I can almost touch spring through the icy gauze of winter that still has a hold on our part of the world. Our crocuses survived the nasty bit of weather we experienced yesterday and I am so anxious for warmer breezes that will bring with it the greens that mean new beginnings. Like all new starts those first greens are so tentative and often terribly pale in those first small shoots. Almost like they won't survive another moment...but they do and they grow in strength with each new sunrise.

Like what seems like a death today in the loss of so many things for so many families, we are in need of some new growth where there is browns and grays.

I hope that a new spring comes to all of our lives, one that grows beautiful and strong in the one thing we really all need - hope.

Better Days

Tonight comes the snows of winter - again! But thankfully it is April so eventually it will have to retreat under the rays of the warm rains of April and the sunny days of May. My hope is that some of these terrors of the financial woes that are haunting us at present will pass a little with the warmth of springtime.

I am really looking forward to the warm evenings again so I can sit outside and enjoy the evenings. So here's to spring and with it the hope of new and better days - for all of us.

When is it Really Spring?

White and lavender crocuses are blooming in my very brown garden. It was lovely today and walking amongst all the dead plants of last year and clearing that debris while gingerly skirting those crocuses was a real joy. My granddaughter and I crouched down often to feel those lovely soft petals. It was a wondrous feeling.

Tomorrow they tell us it will rain, and that should by Sunday night turn to snow. 3 to 6 inches for the first weekday of spring break. Nothing new here since that is a usual for spring vacation here in West Michigan. Gosh but I'm ready for warm 60 degree temperatures!

So here's to hoping and wishing for the real warm front to finally come through here, and everywhere!