EudoraNews.com

I've noted lately that several columnists have fallen under the spell of spring.

Last week, the Lawrence Journal-World ran a column by Garrison Keillor taking a respite from the thorny political scene to wax poetic about spring.

Our own editor deviated a bit from the norm by reminding us to venture out for a walk to take in the beauty of the season while promoting the possibility for some walk/bike paths to draw north and south Eudora together. (A great idea, by the way).

I routinely fall under the spell each spring when the sun is warm on my face and the troubles of winter are softened by the beauty that blossoms, turning the gray and drab Kansas landscape into a riot of glorious color.

Living in Kansas exposes us to the changing seasons. We can somewhat predict what they hold for us (along with a good Doppler system) so we might say that while the seasons change, they don't change.

That word has been on my mind lately as well as on the minds of many in our community as Eudora faces growth issues in a variety of ways.

But just as these changes -- which are truly significant -- are happening, most of the events that compose our personal lives each day change very little.

This thought entered my mind as I was helping wash dishes recently at a pre-Holy Communion luncheon for parents and first communicants at Holy Family Church here in Eudora.

I was reminded that more than 60 years ago I was the gap-toothed 8-year-old girl dressed in white taffeta, white veil, white stockings and shoes standing in front of the spirea bush the day of my first communion.

Soon that event will again occur in many churches everywhere with little girls in white dresses and veils and well-scrubbed little boys in white shirts and ties with folded hands and pious expressions.

• 
  
  After six weeks of Lent, we celebrated Easter on Sunday, gathering together to sing hymns we all learned as children and to eat Easter eggs colored by the kids -- just like I did as a child.

Soon our young people will graduate to head off into their future, mothers will be honored, the long hot summer will descend in all of its intensity bringing the Fourth of July with the flag and firecrackers and finally fall will emerge with festivals and football games and then, of course Christmas.

In between holidays, the tooth fairy still leaves coins under pillows when teeth fall out and as the holidays mark the passing of another year, new babies are born and family and friends pass on. Fields are planted and harvested and gardens produce strawberries and tomatoes enough to share with neighbors, and another year has passed -- only to be repeated and marked next year by the same celebrations -- as the cycle resumes.

Even our sayings are handed down from generation to generation.

I recently heard a little boy say while skipping across the sidewalk "Step on a crack, break your mother's back." That one must be as old as time.

I also saw a bumper sticker the other day that was totally new to me and one to treasure.

On the back of an old car painted a chipped green chartreuse rode the sticker which said, "I started out with nothing and I've got most of it left."

I wonder if that one will make it into the golden oldies.

While we seem to be constantly bombarded by the chaos of the world around us, threatened by the darkness of the storms that blow across the prairie and despairing of the war that wages and takes our children, it is comforting to remember that as long as we can gather to share a meal, celebrate a birthday, baptism or wedding, or remember those who have died, then we are one family. We will continue to repeat and mark those events and people who make our rising each day memorable.

While some things change, nothing changes. As the old saying goes,

"There is nothing new under the sun."