May Day Flowers

This is just a quick post to salute the fact that it is May Day.  I somehow missed that fact until an hour ago, maybe because I was rushing a science project to school for one child, dropping off the overnight sleeping bag etc for the Boston Science Museum overnight for my Girl Scout, and following up on PET with the school for another, and meeting with my minister about special music for this Sunday. Nonetheless, May Day arrived, regardless of my schedule or my kids. What has happened?  

When I was a child [which apparently was shortly after dinosaurs roamed the earth] I remember rolling construction paper cones and taping them, then attaching pipe cleaner handles. Next my brother and I would happily gather forget-me-nots and other wild flowers to fill our improvised "May Baskets." Once we arranged our blossoms in the 'baskets' we would tiptoe up onto a neighbors porch, hang the basket on the doorknob, ring the bell, and run to hide, watching to see their surprise when they found their May flowers.  Even to me it now seems like an era long gone, a nicety lost, and innocence and delight that somehow seems foreign in the era of I-pods and Wiis, Science Museum field trips, and elaborate science projects.    

I don't remember if I delivered homemade May Baskets every year as a child or only once... but the memory is strong and joyful. So today I decided to acknowledge May Day as more than a passing date on a crowded calendar. Today I sent May Baskets to my daughters, and will help my kiddos make May Baskets when the bus gets home.  The laundry and vacuuming and dishes can [and sadly will] wait.  Sometimes we have to interrupt our schedules for a moment of peaceful, more innocent, even outdated pleasures with our children so that they too will have something to look back and remember.  Happy May Day!