MAY DAY 2025

NOTE:  I "minister" or administer "watch care" for seven women in our congregation who currently choose not to attend meetings.  However, they have indicated they would accept some contact with the members--just "not up close and personal".  So, I try to think of sister-to-sister ways to interact with them.  

In previous years, I have left fresh flowers or a small plant on their doorstep to celebrate May Day.  However, this year I wrote the following message, and I left it in a festive bag on their doorstep with a packet of blank notes embellished with beautiful flowers on the front of each card.  It was an invitation for them to "pass it forward" in a way.  

I hope they found opportunity to do that and scatter LOVE in a variety of directions.

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Sing a song of May time.

Sing a song of Spring.

Flowers are in their beauty.

Birds are on the wing.

May time, play time.

God has given us May time.

Thank Him for His gifts of love.

Sing a song of Spring!

May 2025

Early European settlers of the Americas brought their May Day traditions with them.  You may remember making those same kinds of traditional small baskets in school, filling them with flowers or treats and leaving them at someone’s doorstep to find after you rang the bell and ran away.  I recall it was a fun activity and even more fun later to dart away before someone opened their door to find the surprise I had left for them.

Though that tradition has faded in popularity, I truly enjoyed the May Day celebration when we lived in Sweden several years ago.  It included dancing around the Maypole and crowning the Queen of May.  I liked it so much, in fact, that when I found a handmade music box with colorful wooden figures weaving ribbons around a pole as the music box played and the figures danced in circles, I immediately purchased it and brought it back to our home in America.

When my younger daughter got married, I gifted that little music box to her, as it was a favorite decoration on the bookshelf in our family room.  She still displays it in her home where her children now enjoy winding the key and seeing the dancers weave their ribbons around the Maypole.

This May Day, though, I’m surprising you with flowers of a different sort, some that you can share long after the first of May.  These “flowers” are an invitation for you to send a loving note to individuals who need a little “Spring” because of illness, sadness, or perhaps just a cheery “Hello!” 

 

In John 13: 34, Christ said:

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

Let us take as our motto during the month of May with its surprise baskets of flowers and treats, “LOVE AT ALL TIMES!”

What a wonderful way to thank God for His gifts of love to us—usually given through others—in May time and always!

LOVE,  From your friend in the neighborhood—

Swedish music box   1981