A: April

     Yay!  April is finally here! April has always been my friend.  She is beautiful in every way.  I think I first realized my crush when I was in high school.  April would come along and I would lighten up in every way.  I adored her gift of longer days, particularly the additional evening light. That light brought  baseball with it and the sound of Vin Scully on the radio and the dust of baseball games in the vacant lot next door.  April also reminded me that the school year would be closing (relatively) soon and that her sister Summer would come into town before too long.

     I think it was my first year in college that I declared April 21st to be my favorite day of the year.  That day had magic in my head.  That day was my quintessential spring day:  blue sky with puffy white clouds, bright spring flowers and their fragrance everywhere you walked, mild temperatures that found me in overalls and a tank top and sandals.  April 21st felt like new life, new chances, new me.  April 21st and I became intertwined.  I aimed to be married on that day but schedules would only permit an April 18th wedding.  Close enough, I figured. I thought it would be perfect to birth a child on April 21.  The first arrived on April 23rd, the second on April 8th.  Again, close enough.

      We are still a couple, April and I.  I have come to know the down sides of her.  She can sometimes be gray and cloudy.  She can be cold.  She doesn't always let me wear sandals.  But she still brings me flowers every year.  She still showers me with more evening light.  She still whispers Summer in my ear.  We are growing older together and she still makes me laugh and feel light.  I love her more than any other month.