Marking This Day

    "Now at last plants are beginning to shoot and birds to sing and it is difficult not to think how much happiness there could be if the world would allow it."    Vanessa Bell

      Today, May 30 is Vanessa Bell's birth day.  She was born at 22 Hyde Park Gate in 1879. One-hundred and forty-one years ago today.  I'm thinking of her, and what she was experiencing in 1940.....the year of this quote.....the lingering effects of her son Julian's death in the Spanish Civil war; her daughter Angelica leaving Charleston for Yorkshire with Garnett; the ongoing war with Germany, and constant fears of invasion with aeroplanes flying regularly over the Sussex countryside.  

      Amid a beautiful 2020 Spring, I'm also thinking of the current times we are living through---a devastating world-wide pandemic, unceasing brutality against people of color by those who should protect, and an immoral  administration that seems bent on destroying our country and its democracy.

     Sitting in my garden, I am comforted by thoughts of you, sitting in your garden, noting new plants budding and blooming, and birds singing. So much to witness and appreciate in the natural world, so much potential for happiness,  if only the world would allow it. Nevertheless, I will pin down and mark this day and this moment...........May 30, the day of your birth.