Poor me! Living in Miami we get no spring. What we get is dirt. The grass is dried up. I tried to have a veggie garden outside my art room window… I planted herbs and tomatoes… and then it rained for about a month in December and then I watched the plants dry up in the heat and sunshine of our Florida spring. It goes from 60 degrees to 80 degrees in a heartbeat in the morning. So I have some dried herbs and 2 hibiscus bushes that I try to hide from the marauding lizards and iguanas. I just pulled out the dried up tomato bushes this morning. Got 3 small tomatoes as a crop. One spring when I worked for Eastern Airlines, I traveled from Louisiana to New York and Connecticut over a few months time and saw for the first time real Iris, forsythia, tulips, daffodils, and crocus growing in the ground!!!! In Pittsburgh I asked my Mom what that big yellow bush was??? "Forsythia…" How splendid! I’ve been living in Miami since I was 3, so I don’t know spring flowers. We go barefoot all the time, and spring flowers are cut and wrapped in tissue.
Today, April 1, is my Mother’s birthday. She would be 100. And today, Mother Angelica, foundress of a Monastery and an order of Priests, and foundress of a Cable Network (EWTN Eternal Word Television Network) was buried. There have been several beautiful memorial ceremonies including a sung Vespers last night and two beautiful "homily/eulogies" said by 2 wonderful Franciscan Priests of Mother’s Priestly order. They used to say daily Mass that Mom watched faithfully at Noon every day. As the Mass of Christian Burial was concluding today with Communion and a singing of "Panis Angelicus" (Bread of Angels), I thought of how much Mom loved EWTN – she had it on all day long and often listened to and said 4 Rosaries as the day went on… As I listened to the beauty of the Mass of Christian Burial I thought it is as if this too is Mom’s celebration. Mother who loved Jesus and the Blessed Mother so much… that perhaps Mom is there at the "Gate of Paradise" standing where she can see Jesus to welcome Mother Angelica home. Let us pray that we too may be so blessed with the faith that we will be welcomed home and it will be all that we couldn’t possibly dream of… we can’t know how beautiful, because it is beyond our most inspired imaginings! God bless our parents and those who teach us. God bless you who inspire me, who pour out your love for me and for others. Be at Peace my dear friends and family. God bless you.