How they grow.

"Winter is upon us again," says his e-mail, the message that finally goads me to do it--to look back to last year and see just when it was that the temperature plunged at midday, taking us down from the 60s to the 40s in the space of just a couple of hours. Just as I thought: April 3. It happens yearly. We live in Ohio. It's not that winter is upon us again. It's that an Ohio spring works this way: a plunge forward, a plunge back. The crossing and clashing of seasons. It's nothing to fear, nothing to worry about, nothing but the subject matter for small talk, nothing but a provocation (if you'll have it) to savor what is warm and glowing whenever and wherever it turns up. The crabapple buds grew more today; the magnolia tree continued to bloom, a few more flowers at a time, a week earlier this year than last. If they're not complaining, then I'm not either. Consider the lilies (or, in this case, the trees) of the field.

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Oh, oh, and also!!!

If you've ever wanted an awesome necklace, whether for yourself or someone else, you might want to hurry over to Superhero Designs, Andrea Scher's amazing jewelry site. Right about this time last year, I was preparing for class in the bookstore and decided to take a break and poke around on the web. I couldn't even reconstruct for you how it is that I made my way to Superhero Designs, but I sure am glad I did, especially since the necklace I ordered proceeded to sell out. Andrea had a beautiful baby son in December and has been on maternity leave since late fall. Just today, she's announced that she's back in business--but only for a limited time. She sells gorgeously funky jewelry and kickass t-shirts. And she posts unbelievably cute pictures of her unbelievably cute son on her blog. So go already.