Spring sprung relatively speaking . . .

In the mailbox this new-Moon-day in 2023:

Another Spring. At last. Green is beckoned from the grey, although it remains to be seen if my Azaleas have survived this record Winter. Today, I celebrate my birth. Another turn of the eternal wheel of Equinoxes and Solstices. Here and God knows where else. The Earth is tilted on its axis, as am I in most always.

Sharing my birthdate, good company: Each of these good folks and events served to shape me in multiple ways that would fill volumes of distraction. Suffice it that I celebrate their influence, virtues, gifts and continuing presence.

It's the 2066th anniversary of Publius Ovidius Naso's birth. The Roman poet, better known as Ovid, was born on this date in Sulmo, 90 miles east of 43 B.C. Rome; Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen was born today in 1828 Skien, Norway; it's the 119th anniversary of behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner's birth in 1904 Susquehanna, Pennsylvania; and Albert Einstein published his theory of general relativity on this day in 1916.

Other significant (to me) events (selected) on today's date: Henry V succeeded his father to the throne of England in 1413; in 1841 Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was published, as was Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852; in 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered 4,000 troops to protect the Selma-Montgomery civil rights marchers; and ‘Spike’ Lee, film director (Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X) was born in 1957 Atlanta Georgia.

It is a great thing to be glad when your friends’ virtues are celebrated. – Teresa of Ávila The Interior Castle, trans. Mirabai Starr

In transcending spiritual materialism, there is no goal. The goal exists in every moment of our life situation – Chӧgyam Trungpa