“. . . Each minute bursts in the burning room,   

The great globe reels in the solar fire,   

Spinning the trivial and unique away.

(How all things flash! How all things flare!)   

What am I now that I was then?   

May memory restore again and again   

The smallest color of the smallest day:   

Time is the school in which we learn,   

Time is the fire in which we burn.

Excerpt from “Calmly We Walk through this April’s Day,” Delmore Schwartz

April begins. Frost on the meadow, a chill that is pleasant and fresh. The mallards pedal the wetlands peacefully. I am peaceful alone with Charlie on April Fool’s day. The youngest is giddy all day from her fooling; harmless jokes she plays on all of us. She asks me if I’ve called her brother. Hmmmm. She insists with a smile I must call him. And I do. And he says he is very concerned about my plan for Easter. What plan for Easter? Well, he doesn’t think I should be hosting the entire extended family for a holiday right now.. . Aha! I tell him his sister has fooled him. He laughs.I have no such outrageous plan. I’m not thinking about Easter. Or, trying not to, as it will be a strange day, not gathering at my brother’s house with all the relatives. But, I am staying in the day. Easter is not here. I hold my Farm Pond Writer’s Collective on Zoom, and this is a wonderfully creative start to a busy and satisfying day of activity. I offer a writing prompt on doors, and the writing shared is beautiful and deep. (Reader, e-mail me if you’d like me to send you the prompt: kellydumar@gmail.com). I meet with Guild colleagues to prep for the Free Lunch webinar we’re conducing with Judy Huge tomorrow. In the late afternoon, I meet on Zoom with a new poetry collective I’ve joined, and we share poems, and I get some helpful feedback on my meditation retreat poem. I make macaroni and cheese from scratch. One daughter chops the onion, shreds the cheese; the other takes the whisk out of my hand and finishes the rue. After dinner, I am so happy I join a Playback North America videoconference to do playback with thirty people gathered from playback troupes around the country! It’s fun and poignant and effervescent. A wonderful close to the day. Expansive, really. Today, I’m aware of the terrible terrible news and suffering. Today I’m aware of the expansive hearts and minds of people who want to listen to each other and spread hope. And I baked a batch of my Aunt Virginia’s molasses cookies. She was a very good woman, and I loved spending time with her and I miss her.