The beauty of Spring and the rebirth it brings is in stark contrast to the deteriorating state of lost memories and memory loss. One is the harbinger of hope, the other a harsh reality of decline leading to permanency. Hope is grounded in movement and change that is in the desired direction with the desired outcome. Memory loss moves toward loss and dreaded outcome. May Day seems at odds with loss. In many ways it is.

Only with a shift can we reconcile the two. A major shift. Not only a shift from anticipating the future to treasuring the present, but a shift from relying on the past to form the essence of where we meet in the present. Both the past and the future are affected, and the nature of the present forever changed. The connecting link that our relationship to time usually provides must now be replaced by our relationship with each other.

It's as if we've been stripped of the bridge that time provides for us to stand on together as we meet and interact. We are in mid air, instead. No shared past,no future restored, only the meeting at the moment. Suspended we are left to focus on the moment. Feel the feelings, touch the words, see the eyes, study the face and watch the mouth. Embrace the aura of the exchange and find each other in it.

May Day is one day, not a season, not a week, or a month or a year. One day. Today is May Day. We can meet here. We are meeting here. That means we are meeting as birds sing and flowers bloom. It is not on the bridge, it is in midair, but it is amidst the beauty and hope of spring. What a lovely place to meet. Far better we are aware of it, than oblivious. So, just as awareness has its harshness, it has its gifts. Without awareness we would be truly stripped, empty in the truest sense. With awareness we can have these precious moments of today. The shift costs but it also rewards. Carpe Diem takes on a new meaning. We must and we will. In fact, we are.