I woke up this morning thinking about spring. I had been dreaming that I was canoeing down a river swollen with spring rains, taking each curve in stride. I woke up to the sound of jubilant cardinals, the first time I�d been wakened by birds in months.

I was thinking about spring yesterday when I was talking to my grandmother who is experiencing her first low country spring after years in northern California. There are new flowers and smells. She was always an avid gardener and she is excited to learn about all the new plants she sees. She was telling me about a visit from my mother yesterday where they took a walk and sat outside on a bench in the sun.

It is snowing again, snowing on the pale green points of daffodils pushing up through the frozen ground, a phenomenon that never ceases to amaze me, year after year. They are so fragile looking; they can be snapped off with your little finger. And yet they push through earth as hard as rock in the snow.

* * * * *

The supplies for AJ�s birthday party arrived yesterday. It�s not until the end of the month, but with the conference, I�m trying to make preparations early. He was beyond excited, disemboweling the box in a matter of seconds, marveling at each new thing he found. I have had to hide them lest he play with the trinkets purchased for his guests to take home.

We took him bowling last night and he bowled his first strike, doing a little dance in his bowling shoes at the end of the lane. In fact, all three of us (who are lousy bowlers on a good day) managed to get a strike in the same frame. Let�s hear it for family solidarity. AJ also put two quarters, warm from his pocket, into the machine where you steer a crane into a pile of toys and hope you can pick one up and actually managed to get one, a larged stuffed Robin (as in Batman and). Robin has been doing tricks around the house all morning. And naturally we�ve taken to calling AJ Boy Wonder.

* * * * *

I am listening to the austere music of William Byrd this morning. It is calming and head-clearing. I�m hoping it will brush the cobwebs off my fuzzy head. It�s funny how often the words �miserere mei,� when set to music, are so cathartic. I may make an all-miserer playlist in future. I'm not sure whether it's Lent or spring, but I'm feeling in the need of a little mercy.

3 people said it like they meant it