My Day!

My first celebration this year was with Carrie in New York. The waiter overheard us talking about birthdays (not an accident I'm sure) and arrived with my first piece of birthday cake of 2010. There will be more as I celebrate with David today and Eliza on Monday when she wings her way back to this continent.
I love the month of April. TS Eliot has given it a bad rap. The only line most people know from The Waste Land is "April is the cruelest month." Below are the next few lines which are lovely and not cruel but a sign of the earth waking up.

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

Here are some birthday memories.
The cherry tree in the Summit garden with the pink blossoms bloomed on April 23 every year. I wonder if it is blooming today in what is now someone else's garden.

My sister who is ten years older planned my parties. At least she planned the one my father filmed with his new movie camera. I must have been in fourth grade. I've watched the blurry images over and over. Girls in full skirted dresses and party shoes dance around in a circle holding hands. My sister calls out the commands and one of us rushes to the center (farmer in the dell) or picks up a handkerchief (a tisket a tasket, a green and yellow basket.) I was proud to have an older sister who made everything fun. I loved having my birthday party outside. We did go inside for musical chairs and to untangle the spider web that was strung from one end of the living room to the other.

In high school, when Martha Rhodes and I discovered our birthdays were one day apart, we celebrated each year together. We called each other "star sister" since the stars were clearly in line when we were born. Sometimes our birthdays were during Passover so we had to have an unleavened cake. I remember thinking that was exotic.

Since I have had a family of my own, I have been richly celebrated. Breakfast in bed, presents, singing, homemade cakes. Now emails come from across the ocean and early morning phone calls start my day. Friends and siblings send cards or call. Apple blossoms on the tree in my Lincoln garden are just opening. Forsythia and daffodils in full bloom.

April is the kindest month.