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April Reflections
Looking out the door to the porch of my Hollywood bungalow, blooming jasmine perfumes the air, the sky is bluest blue, birds chirp.
I can feel it from the desk: Spring. Finally. The happiest spring in two long years. There was April 2020 with Andrew Cuomo every morning, April 2021, when I finally got my vaccine.
And now this April, when I’m packing for Bell’Italia.
In olden times in Sicily, the Greek legend said that spring came when the beautiful nymph Persephone was released from the Underworld. That’s when she could leave Pluto, God of Hades, who had captured her.
Persephone’s mamma, Demeter, Goddess of Agriculture, would welcome her back, and mother and daughter frolicked in the fields.
In the days of the Roman Empire, April began with festivals honoring Venus, Goddess of Love, Beauty, Fertility. Her statues were decorated, incense burned, there was, ritual bathing under boughs of myrtle.
