Monthly letter: April
On noticing life as it opens up
One afternoon this week, my son and I sat down in a sunny spot in our garden and ate outside for the first time this year. We were sheltered from the wind and could feel the sun warming us. It was a rare and golden moment, free of distractions.
Our bodies thawed in the warmth, and before long we were sitting there in T-shirts with our trouser legs rolled up. The air was bright and clear, and the conversation came easily.
It made me think of the story about the man, the sun, and the wind. The sun and the wind argue about which of them is stronger, and decide to settle it by seeing who can make a man walking along the road take off his coat.
The wind goes first. He blows and blows, but the harder he tries, the more tightly the man pulls his coat around himself. At last the wind gives up, and the sun gets to try. She shines and spreads warmth. After a while, the man grows so warm that he takes off his coat.
When I told this story to my son when he was little, I asked him who he thought would win. His answer came quickly: the wind, of course. When it turned out to be the sun after all, we had to reflect on that for a while.
There are many people arguing about who is strongest these days. The news is full of it, and often it can seem as though the wind has more supporters than the sun.
But then April arrives, with sun in the sky and hundreds of suns on the ground.
When I go for walks with someone these days, the conversation is often interrupted by small observations:
“Oh, look — a coltsfoot! The first one I’ve seen this year.”
“Do you hear that bird? Do you know what kind it is?”
“What? Have the birch leaves started coming out already?”
There are several theories about where the word April comes from, but one of the most central is that it derives from the Latin verb aperire — to open.
And everywhere, something is opening: coltsfoots, wood anemones, birch leaves, coats, faces, conversations, and senses.
A quote I’ve found myself returning to several times over the past few days is this one, often attributed to Kurt Vonnegut:
“Life is a garden, not a road. We enter and exit through the same gate. Wandering, where we go matters less than what we notice.”
Perhaps that is exactly what both April and life are about:
noticing one another and the world in this time we are given under the warm sun.
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