High Points: A brighter May

As I write this, my iPhone says it has reached 73 degrees in Snowmass. If I’m not mistaken that is the first time in the 2020s that we have passed 70 up here in the hills. The sun this evening will not set until 8:00pm. And if I look to the weather future on my phone there is nothing but yellow sun emojis in the forecast for the next seven days. May is coming in like a shiny new day.

We sure could use a change. April may have been the most, I don’t know, disruptive, depressing, worrisome, disconcerting, discombobulating … I can’t find the right word … month of my long lifetime. Talk about having your cheese moved. March was just shocking as we progressed from our normal lives to lockdown. But April had a broken rhythm that felt like it would never end. I lost track of days, time, purpose. It all seemed to run together.

April is supposed to be the “get-away” month around here. People are wrapping up their ski season, crushing closing parties, stashing shorts and books in their bags and then taking flight for Costa Rica, Mexico, Hawaii, the Galapagos, New Orleans and other exotic locales. The warmth and the Vitamin D that the sun provides is an elixir after a long winter. It is, for many of us the best time of year. Even if you don’t go away for the change of seasons, May is welcomed with a change of gear. From skis to bikes, we still go up and down hills, we just do it with different tools.

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But this year everything has been different.

Now that we have reached May we are all still searching for ways to make sense of this. It appears, at this moment, like we in the Valley have dodged the bullet. Yes, there are still challenges ahead, but for the most part our location, our actions, and yes, our prosperity, have protected us from some of the worst impacts that other regions have had to endure. If we can just be careful, and keep on keeping on, we may be able to weather the current storm and begin to rebuild in the summer.

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The change of a page in the calendar, turning from one month to the next is generally just an afterthought. After all April 30th and May 1st are really only separated by a tick of the second hand on the clock. But there is something about it becoming a new month, with sunshine and the longer days, that provides me with a modicum of optimism. A feeling like maybe we have turned more than a metaphorical page, but actually entered a new reality.

I hope you can feel that too.