May I introduce you to the merry month of May again? I know you have met before and are good friends because how can anyone not like a month that is so friendly?
I think people smile a lot in this time of gentle breezes and the warmth that rises from awakening cool morning air. The fiery tempers of a tempestuous August day, are by comparison all the difference in the world – but that's three months away.
It is the month of the optimist for it is a time for growing, and mother nature keeping once again her promise to elevate the lovely art of pure fun.
It is time for getting a hit with a man on base on a sun-filled afternoon, or chipping a golf ball straight and true, or taking a walk in an apple orchard, or turning your face toward the sun. It's also a month that says lazy is all right for a little while. May speaks the language of welcome against the bitter, blizzardy, anti-social months.
In northern climes, it is fickle, never quite sure whether it will speak the language of spring or find a taste of winter once again. It seems such a short time that the land was painted white but now its canvas is ablaze with color. And if the sun could dance I believe that is what it would do because it is in this month it defeats the cold.
That is why it smiles a lot – or hadn't you noticed: "God's in his Heaven — All's right with the world!" as Robert Browning wrote.
I was born in September, a nice enough month but I've always had a secret desire to be born in May. Everything else was coming alive. Why not me?
I like that this is the skinny season – skinny limbs growing fat with leaves and small flowers that morph into large fruits and vegetables. Certain words fit so well with May: bliss, prosperous, confident. If June is the month for wedding then I think May may be the month for courting.
I do not own spring. I only rent it for awhile as did my father before me, and particularly my grandfather who made his living from the land. I use to plant a food garden every spring. I haven't for several years but this year I have again and find the revival of this old habit quite pleasing.
It is a time when hope revives as seeds burst open and color from flowers explode from mother Earth. And vegetables are such gifts for soul and sight. And then there are the forests that completely take over a portion of the land. Where I walked this morning the trail often led me to old tree friends with their various shapes expanding in the sun.
I wax poetic, for if ever there was a month that deserves it, it is May