An Appointment With April

I was recently reminded of the following story about the philosopher George Santayana by a friend's FaceBook posting that he wanted to call in "blissful" from work.

Apparently, while Santayana was still a professor at Harvard, he was giving a lecture when he was stopped mid-sentence by the brilliant yellow of a forsythia blooming outside the window. He stood in silent reverie for several seconds, staring at this yellow. Then he said to his students, “Gentlemen, I very much fear that that last sentence will never be completed. You see, I have an appointment with April.” With that he left the room and never gave regular lectures again. 

Do you ever play hookey from -- or, at least, go in late to --work because the white of the clouds against the blue of the sky was just too perfect to leave outside? 

Do you take off your shoes and walk barefoot in the grass because it just looks too lush and green to be separated from?

Have you ever come home from work and demanded that your family follow you outside because the night sky was too amazing to ignore?

Or have you "grown up"?  Have you left such things for the children in your life?  (Please, please say that at least you have some children in your life!)

Another FaceBook friend posted this line from the Mary Oliver poem What Can I Say?:

"The song you heard singing in the leaf when you

were a child

is singing still."

It is still April, for a few more days.  And then it will be May.  Then June, July, and August.  Then will come the fall, and each month, each season, each moment has its beauty.

You are part of that beauty. 

Have you been forgetting to keep your appointments lately?

In Gassho,

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