The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The
difference between them is sometimes as great as a month
(Henry Van Dyke) (with thanks to Sanderson Smith)
I’m approaching the end of my seventh year living in the East Anglia region of the UK, and we just had our second real snow of that period, Easter morning, 2008. I’m not a big fan of snow. Ok, I don’t mind snow; I just don’t like the cold it seems to be regularly associated with. That may seem strange since my permanent home is in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, but I think that is one of the things that keeps me working late in life. If I retire I have to go back to Michigan and shovel snow… and they have had lots more days of lots more snow than here in East Anglia.
I love the Daffodils pushing up through the snow. There is probably a life lesson in there, but the trouble with life lessons is figuring out what they mean. Next week the snow will most likely be distant memory, and the daffodils will still be standing tall. The daffodils are more constant, and so I notice the snow. The temporary discomfort draws my attention, but it makes me appreciate the daffodils. Would I have noticed them this morning if the snow had not fallen? Maybe life’s little tribulations are just there to make us see the blessings that are more constant. They are building an elevator in my school next to my room, and for some reason it could NOT be done in the summer. Some days the ear-splitting drilling and hammering noise is almost continuous, and on occasion I have had to retreat to the cafeteria for a make-shift class. Through all this, I am inspired by the way my young charges continue to stay on task. We laugh at the crazy spectacle of trying to learn calculus and analysis in the cacophony, but through it all, my little daffodils stick their heads above the snow and persevere.
For those who are interested in the fluctuations of the date on which Easter occurs, I saw one calculation that said the period of the Easter cycle is 5,700,000 years... Rex Boggs, an American ex-pat living down under sent a copy of a post from an Australian discussion list that contained some interesting notes about how early Easter came this year.
"Easter 2008
A once in a lifetime experience!
Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.
Here's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here's the facts:
1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now).
The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!"
