Cold, Rainy Days

Today it's the middle of April, 40 degrees and raining. And while I love the rain, I'm ready for warmer spring like weather. This year, in particular, I've noticed all the trees start to blossom and grow new leaves. The beauty of all the flowering trees is juxtaposed with the grey, trash-strewn streets of N. Philly. Driving to Mt. Airy today, I cynically thought "April showers bring May concrete."

There's something awakening in me- a longing to live in the almost country. That magical place where urban meets rural, but it's not quite suburbs. A place where we can have a lot of land and a few sheep, but are close enough to bike to a few places. Somewhere much more private than our noisy street. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the wonderful parts of our city and our life: all the parks nearby, our weekly trips to Reading Terminal, biking through our own concrete jungle that we've come to know rather intimately. And while it's true that in our neighborhood there may not be many flowers, we'll go ahead and do our part to make our small patch of yard beautiful. The biggest challenge of this season is to remember that dirt and grass and nature are out there; not everything is as hard and gray-white as concrete, including our own lives. Just like the earth beyond our neighborhood, we have our seasons of rebirth, death, flowering and wilting. We regularly plant, water and nurture those around us and all of our dreams for the future. And because we live surrounded by the concrete, we know how much sweeter that harvest will be.