May Day

Welcome to May. May Day. A festival day of flowers and spring. The arrival of May Day brings a couple thoughts to mind. First, in as much as the year 2012 is absolutely sailing along at warp speed I am reminded how my mother and father used to warn me that time passes more quickly as one gets older. Seeing this is May 1st, I can only agree. How we got here so fast I cannot possibly fathom. If time is passing this fast at 55 I think I can pretty much discard my calendar entirely by age 60. A watch will suffice.

May Day used to be something of a celebration as a kid. May Baskets and such were still at least talked about at home. I think I may have seen some version of a May pole that kids would wind around. I'm thinking that celebration is pretty much extinct and, frankly, I guess not much of a loss. What's one pagan holiday more or less? Besides, May Day was never associated with either of the two things that really make a holiday relevant to a kid: food and presents-- unless you want to count May Baskets, and no kid ever would.

That said, welcome May Day. We can be grateful we are observing May Day as opposed to Mayday, Mayday, Mayday, the international distress call which, by the way, has nothing whatsoever to do with the first day of May. Rather it is derived from the French, venez m'aider.

Hopefully, you are far removed from having to put forth a distress call today. I hope, rather, you are able to take a few minutes, have a mug of joe or spot of tea, and perhaps enjoy a songbird and a blossom or two today. Any day you're safe and warm is a good day to celebrate. No matter how fast the years are passing.