Hey, Mom

T.S. Eliot wrote that

April is is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land,
Mixing memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Taken out of context of The Wasteland, we lose Eliot’s meaning. But these lines are often quoted and misquoted to say something profound about April.

To be fair, April is cruel in some ways. For example, after a fantastic Saturday (temps in the upper 60s) when we tilled up space for eight new asparagus plants, Sunday came back at us as if to say, “Oh yeah? You think it’s spring?” And today (Tuesday morning) we awoke to snow. But this afternoon the snow is gone, replaced by the famous April Showers, and even the daffodils, which looked a bit perturbed this morning in the snow, seem happy enough. Who, then, are we to complain?

Mostly April is kind. It is April that unlaces the straight-jacket of winter. The “dull roots” do indeed stir with desire in April. Saturday we remarked how quickly the plants grow–overnight it seems. Even a snowy morning does not deter our hopefulness. I know that real warmth and time to plant is only short weeks away. While seedlings thrive indoors, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, and chives thrive outdoors. We have waited a long time for April, and it is indeed kind, not cruel, and April rains are the sweetest of all rains, turning brown grass green right before our eyes.

There is the return of the robins, of course, daylight savings time, the snow melted and green grass growing–but one of the best, for me, is being able to hang my laundry outside again in the sun. Today, it was sheets and one load of whites. They gleamed in the sun, swayed in the breeze, and smelled beyond fresh as I folded them to take them in. I feel like I can breathe again!