04.30.2025 | Wednesday in Eastertide

It is a wet Wednesday here in the Carondelet Garden in South Saint Louis.  The rain may be heavy, which we have already witnessed a few times.  There will be a chance for some afternoon thunderstorms as well.  Some storms may be severe, so be careful out there.  We may get another one to two inches of rain.  We welcome the heavenly moisture but could use it spread out a bit more.  

​Today would have been my mom's 89th birthday.  It's hard to believe she has been gone for 20 years now.  She loved flowers and especially the color pink.  So here is a tulip for you today.  April 30th has bittersweet memories as today is also the 10th anniversary of the passing of my father-in-law.  I was definitely not his first choice as a son-in-law but over a long marriage we grew to care for each other.  The weather is appropriate for today.  

Losing those we love is simply something we have come to accept as we are getting older.  We are at that age where we attend more funerals than we do weddings.  Yet, the one thing I have learned is that when we count getting older as nothing but a series of losses, we lose sight of its gains.  FDR once said, "the only thing to fear is fear itself."  I believe my job right now is to simply not fear the fear.  Embracing the signs of change in me, embracing the very things I fear losing.  These things are a call to new beginning.  I'm getting slower and slower.  I don't have the stamina I once had.  My memory is not what it once was to be sure.  But I still get up every morning with a sense of what's going to happen today?  That is a blessing!

Keep moving!  Stay as active as I can.  Try to do the things that interest me and, hopefully, enrich the lives of those around me.  That's the goal anyway.  Be good to yourself and stay safe on this wet Wednesday the last day of April.  That's all the news from here in the Carondelet Garden.