Essays in time

By Jon Rieley-Goddard
copyright 2007-2008


Warm day

-- April boon

or boondoggle?

The insecure child will say to his mama – I know that you said that you love me a minute ago, but do you still love me?

The insecure lover of spring will say to April – I know you bless me this day, but what of tomorrow?
And the rest of us wonder -- What other surprises will this most cruel of months will spring on us, like season’s greetings, in the days to come before May, the most lovely of months, pushes its way into our lives, like one hamster jumping into a spinning exercise cage will eject another?

It is ambivalence that touches both halves of the heart when one is confronted by the seasons in this cruel month of April – snow early on, with many cold mornings and a few cold days following, rainy days that look both ways, and now a day from another planet where spring comes with fresh, warm breezes and stays its allotted time before yielding with grace to reason and mourning the passing of a day or a season. To paraphrase Robert Frost.

In Buffalonya, on the west side of the city, nearer the lake, spring starts on the cool side and endures in coolness until some time in May or even June.

The weather people call it good sleeping weather.

I love the way weather people think, as shown by and judging according to what they say to us, from the airwaves that have their own weather that corresponds to nothing you can see or touch or feel.

Another of their sayings –  it will be warmer away from the lakes (Erie and Ontario).

I’m sure that this month of surprises will do so once again err its end.

• A version of this piece appears in my Grimoire: The Bros Grim Breakfast Serial.