Celebrate April! It's NPM!

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It's also the first day of National Poetry Month and it's April Fool's Day, a funny day to also be Census Day. This is our third day in a row with sunshine. [no foolin', we're countin'] That may be a record for this year so far. For that, and other blessings, I am more than a little grateful to be sitting at home, typing this and drinking coffee. May this day find you healthy, happy, and full of thanks for whatever blessings you enjoy.

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Yesterday, for only the second or third time in the twenty-five years or so that we've lived here, we saw a ruffed grouse in the neighborhood. Today, during a mid-day dog walk, I watched a flock of turkeys sneak across the road, through the ditch and into the woods South of the house. [My intrepid dog, SiSi, never noticed them. She was busy with  the smells right under her  nose.] This morning, as I was rehanging the bird feeders, three Canada geese flew over the house not much more than treetop high. After a Winter with few visits or visitors, it's a joy to see the neighbors out and about again, even if they're not always maintaining a safe six foot distance among themselves.

Do you suppose it's possible that any time soon we'll manage to display enough (un)common sense to realize that the pandemic we're experiencing, together with increasing damage resulting from the climate we've broken, and the destruction being wrought by the sixth extinction on the ecosystems we depend for life, may be admonishments that we need to do some resets? There's well reasoned explanations why we need to take a very hard look at that question. Do you know the difference between an empty world and a full one? The economist, Herman Daly, explains it here.

If we think about living in a full world, should we consider the question:

How Would You Live Then? 

by Mary Oliver

What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks
     flew in circles around your head? What if
the mockingbird came into the house with you and
     became your advisor? What if
the bees filled your walls with honey and all
     you needed to do was ask them and they would fill
the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just
     past your bedroom window so you could listen
to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if
     the stars began to shout their names, or to run
this way and that way above the clouds? What if
     you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves
began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang
     from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw
that the silver of water was brighter than the silver
     of money? What if you finally saw
that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day
     and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were
more precious, more meaningful than gold?

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