{"id":12452,"date":"2014-04-30T12:00:11","date_gmt":"2014-04-30T18:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=12452"},"modified":"2014-04-30T12:00:11","modified_gmt":"2014-04-30T18:00:11","slug":"merry-month-of-may-has-many-meanings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=12452","title":{"rendered":"Merry Month of May Has Many Meanings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"Tom<\/a><\/p>\n

A Boomer’s Journal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Tom Anselm<\/strong><\/p>\n

So today we find ourselves at the start of The Merry Merry Month of May.\u00a0 Good old\u00a0 writer Stephen Foster came up with this one, and his poem speaks of frolicking in the fields amongst the flowers and fauna, of the general joy that spring can bring in the form of celebration.<\/p>\n

There are gobs of decidedly joyful events in May,\u00a0 like Mother’s Day, plant sales, Spring Boutiques, Valley of Flowers and other\u00a0 festivals and church picnics.\u00a0 Add to that First Communions, graduations and end-of-the-school-year field days and outings.<\/p>\n

You know, having worked in schools\u00a0 most of my adult life, my biological clock was set to semesters.\u00a0 The first one was spent getting things started, settling in, working the plans of my students.<\/p>\n

The second was adapting those plans, dealing with the inevitable\u00a0bumps in the road of each kids lives, and then, honestly, praying for\u00a0the end to come and the strength to hang on until May.\u00a0 So May has always been a time to sing, like Mary Tyler Moore, “you’re gonna make it after all.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

May brings smiles in other cultures as well. It’s onset is celebrated in England, China, Germany, the Ukraine.\u00a0 And speaking of Ukraine, it is even such a joyful month that the usually dour Russians will take a day off from creating havoc in Eastern Europe to celebrate May Day. Oh, yeah, their\u2019s is commemorated with parades of tanks, marching troops and rockets, but hey, we all have our traditions, right?<\/p>\n

Our family’s May has been a busy one these past 11 years, with three grandkid’s birthdays.\u00a0 This time around it is even crazier, adding a graduation, a First Communion and a bidding ‘adieu’ to said grad as she starts her odyssey west.\u00a0 (More to come on that saga\u00a0 in a future installment.)<\/p>\n

May also continues April’s\u00a0 burgeoning of all plant life. This is both good and bad.\u00a0 For some reason, apparently due to the severe winter we just survived, The Great Pollinators\u00a0 are wreaking giant havoc on my sinus cavities, with\u00a0 the usual itchy eyes and runny nose joined by drainage such that the Mississippi Valley has not seen in years.<\/p>\n

Every morning, it’s like I am hacking up a spleen (wait, we only get one, right?), with the corresponding sounds that make the lovely Jill want to run for the hills. Or make me take it all outside, for crying out loud.\u00a0 (I hope you’re not eating right now.)\u00a0 Anyway, I am a big baby about taking anything for this condition, maybe because every day there is a commercial with a\u00a0 warning about medications that could result in\u00a0 heart attack, stroke and even \u201cblindness\u201d , while all the time we watch happy actors blithely walking the beach or swinging their grandkids around.<\/p>\n

So I muddle through, mostly.<\/p>\n

However, May is not a month for muddling. Nosiree, happiness and joy are it’s hallmarks. One must follow the current dictum seen all over Facebook and “Keep Calm.”\u00a0 Yes, friends, the merry, merry month of May calls\u00a0 us to “Keep Calm\u2026 and Embrace the Joy.”<\/p>\n

I plan to do just that, handkerchief at the ready, and pray for June when I can finally get a breath of non-pollinated air. Mean-while, a Merry May to all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Boomer’s Journal By Tom Anselm So today we find ourselves at the start of The Merry Merry Month of May.\u00a0 Good old\u00a0 writer Stephen Foster came up with this one, and his poem speaks of frolicking in the fields amongst the flowers and fauna, of the general joy that spring can bring in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columnists","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nMerry Month of May Has Many Meanings - 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