Podrán cortar todas las flores, pero no podrá detener la primavera.

You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.   

      – Pablo Neruda 

Every year in Boston there is the One Sunny Day in March, where everyone bursts outside, awkward in tank tops and flip flops and squinting at the sun. On that day, all the babies are smiling and all the birds are singing and all the bulbs are poking up from underground at long last. 

It can seem incongruous to dance during a troubled time in the world. Oblivious, or disrespectful. But joy can be the greatest celebration of life, the most appropriate expression of gratitude, the greatest form of resistance.

Dear ones, if we are able,

let’s rejoice in this day,

no matter the circumstances.

And if we are lucky enough to flower,

let’s bloom our hearts out.