April Showers or April Fools?

It’s the first day of April and this is what I saw outside my kitchen window this morning.

April Showers or April Fools?

It is beautiful, but not the type of April scene I’d hoped for. The snow we received yesterday, cold temperatures last night and today, and expected snow tomorrow feel like Mother Nature’s April Fools joke. I can’t help wondering, “What happened to April showers?” with the emphasis being on liquid, not frozen moisture falling from the sky.

Last year when I spent March – May in northern Minnesota (near Ely) I expected and saw quite a lot of snow during April. But I had hoped that this year I would get to experience springtime fully here in Minneapolis.

Call me an April Fool! We do not control the weather nor do we get to decide when spring arrives. What we can control with practice and intention is how we respond to the world around us.

“We cannot change the way the world is but by opening to the world as it is we may discover that gentleness, decency, and bravery are available to us and to all human beings.” 

              — Chögyam Trungpa

Last year was an unusually warm spring which I mostly missed staying up north. This year’s spring looks to be a record cold spring. While I might wish for warm spring weather I am practicing radical acceptance of what is. What else can I do? It is what it is.

And this is what it is right now.

#AprilLove2018

One of the ways that I am embracing April, whatever it brings is by participating in a 30-day photo challenge suggested by Susanna Conway on her blog. She has created an easy photo prompt for each day of April. You can find her photo challenge HERE. It’s called April Love 2018. The picture of the prayer flags above was my April 1 photo for the prompt “Morning View.” I love the early morning golden light, the blue shadows and lines of this photo, and the pop of color the prayer flags add to the wintery-looking landscape.

I hope to share a photo a day here in my blog during April as I participate in this lovely way to welcome April.

More Makers’ Hands Series Photos

Despite the cool (sometimes downright cold) weather I am keeping busy making photographs for my Makers’ Hands series of photos. This week I photographed an artist creating art that is a commentary on current events. She was asked to participate in an exhibit called We Are Here, that opens in mid-April. Wanting to create something new for the exhibit, she thought about what is happening right now in our country—young people coming together to fight for gun control and safety in schools and NRA and others arguing to protect their rights “guaranteed” in the second amendment to the constitution.

She believes that we do all sorts of things to “protect” ourselves by owning weapons and in reality those weapons are an illusion of protection, often causing great harm.

She decided to screen print the second amendment on pink and blue flannel fabric and then create mock bulletproof vests. The title of her art is Bulletproof and the point of her creation is that the only thing that seems to be bulletproof in our country is the second amendment.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. — Clarissa Pinkola Estes

We Are All Artists

Every person is an artist. You don’t become an artist, you are born an artist. Each artist shows her soul in her own way. My way of showing my soul is often through noticing and sharing beauty, simplicity, nature, and light-hearted play. How do you show your soul? What do you create?

Happy Easter and Happy Spring everyone! I hope whatever the outside weather is, that your inner weather is filled with joy, gratitude, and peace.

May you walk in beauty.