Here are signs of the seasons:
Ramadan Begins, April 1
Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year in Islamic culture. Muslims observe the month of Ramadan, to mark that Allah, or God, gave the first chapters of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad in 610, according to the Times of India. During Ramadan, Muslims fast, abstain from pleasures and pray to become closer to God. It is a time for families to gather and celebrate. Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, which is a lunar calendar based on the cycles of the moon. Observances begin the morning after the crescent moon is visibly sighted, marking the beginning of the new month.
From A. Helwa, Secrets of Divine Love:
“In the month of Ramadan we are called to use the polish of prayer, the chisel of fasting, and the cleanser of charity to break the veils of separation between us and Allah. The ultimate purpose of fasting is to remove everything between you and God through a practice of physical, emotional, and spiritual detoxification. The month-long fast during Ramadan is not meant to be a hardship, but to foster gratitude and thankfulness in the believer’s heart, for Allah having sent human beings divine guidance through the Qur’an. During the month of Ramadan, it is believed that God rigs this month in our favor, facilitating the turn from creation to the Creator by thinning the veils between Heaven and Earth. It is said that it is in this month that the angels are sent to the Earth and the spirit of God descends to our universe, embracing the world with a divine mercy that intimately encompasses everything.”
MLB Baseball Opening Day, April 7
“‘Opening day.’ All you have to do is say the words and you feel the shutters thrown wide, the room air out, the light pour in. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment.” – Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner
As I was driving through my neighborhood one day, I stopped to watch a Little League baseball game that was being played in a park near my home. As I sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, I asked one of the boys what the score was. “We’re behind 14 to nothing,” he said with a smile. “Really,” I said. “I have to say you don’t look very discouraged.” “Discouraged?” the boy said with a puzzled look on his face. “Why should we be discouraged? We haven’t been up to bat yet.”
A Peanuts cartoon shows Charlie Brown as the manager of the baseball team. He is standing on the mound and Lucy approaches him. He looks quizzically at her. She says, “I am sorry I missed that easy fly. I thought I had it, but suddenly I remembered all the other times I had missed.” In the last frame, walking off the mound, she says, “The past just got in my eyes.”
— Spiritual Passages