April’s.Last.Stanza
In a few hours the calendar turns another page. April has done its duty for yet another year, and on comes May. So long to April’s pea green freshness, its tenderly folded buds and jazzy hot pink azaleas, showing off their stuff. In May, spring’s promise begins to playout. The flowers planted in April’s optimism now need tending, nurturing, in May, the maternal month. It’s Hallmark’s banner month, the florists’ and masseuses’ make-or-break month — May, our annual homage to motherhood, yet ironically the month when moms are run ragged with end-of-school activities, and then there’s the big blank of summer staring us down.
April to May is a jumping off point, and for me this spring, a literal one. I wake up tomorrow to a big challenge. My May 1st moment will be 6+ hours of physical truth-telling, of exploring and pushing my edge. Here’s my ode to May, my hope for all tomorrows and the obstacles and opportunities they bring to each of us:
an excerpt from “Praise What Comes”
…At the end there may be no answers
and only a few very simple questions: did I love,
finish my task in the world? Learn at least
one of the many names of God? At the intersection,
the boundaries where one life began and another
ended, the jumping-off places between fear and
possibility, at the ragged edges of pain,
did I catch the smallest glimpse of the holy?
from The Light of Invisible Bodies by Jeanne Lohmann
Stephanie
Susan
Stephanie
A Still Life...A Life Still 
I absolutely love the quoted verse and am anxiously awaiting your news. How did it go?
Same question here: HOW DID IT GO??? ~Kate
Thanks for asking, Kate. Actually went well and was really fun! So many good-hearted folks out there, offering encouragement as they passed me (or very occasionally, vice versa). It was hard, and I can just now barely manage the stairs without groaning, but it felt great to accomplish it. Mom was at the finish line, and my sisters, so that was the prize for me.
You and Super Saver, the Kentucky Derby winner, both had your day of reckoning on May 1st. To those who get out on the track and try – you win the roses. Congratulations!
WOW!!! What a terrific accomplishment, Stephanie, and how wonderful that your mother and sisters were there to cheer you over the finish line. It’s a moment that you’ll always remember, and the whole experience is one that you’ll treasure. Way to go…and I recommend hot baths with epsom salts as a reward for the mind and body that made it happen.