I will give my presidency up to make way for someone else.
My last message to our group is below. It was composed in an email program I use, an I chose tulips as the design.
Why will make sense when you read my message below.
Also, here's a photo of the flowers that I collected from my yard later that night.
Life is not always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride.
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April is my favorite month. Each year, I post this as a status on Facebook, only to be greeted with my friends posting a T. S. Eliot quote about how April is really not that great.
April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
This year, I have to agree with T.S. Eliot. I don't think anyone reading this newsletter right now predicted that we'd be in a statewide stay-at-home order for three weeks. I definitely did not predict that a 1,000 people a day would die in the U.S. because of events in China that happened a few months ago.
My little hometown in western Kansas has remained relatively safe, with no known cases so far. (One person flew into our airport from out-of-state with the virus and went immediately to the hospital, but has since left).
I'm thinking of our KPC members who live in Wichita and Kansas City, and those who live in all the other communities impacted by this virus.
When the KPC board last met, we talked about sending out a message of hope. We discussed how everyone needs a pick-me-up right about now.
One of our members suggested online resources to download books for free. See below for that link. On a personal note, to combat the stress this has placed on my life, I've taken up painting again.
Self-care is important right now. I hope everyone reading this takes the extra time they now have to find something that makes them happy.
I chose the photo above, and below, for a reason. My favorite time of year is April, for a few reasons. The main reason is because that's when the tulips in my yard bloom. And each year after they bloom, western Kansas always sees a hard freeze, like we will tonight.
Before I go to bed tonight, I'll walk around my yard with scissors in my hand and cut all of my tulips. I'll bring the flowers inside and put them in vases all over my house. When I did this last year, I was surprised at how much my mood changed. I loved smelling fresh flowers and seeing all of the beautiful colors in every room of my house.
I hope you, too, find joy in something colorful right now.
-Monica Springer
KPC president
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Need something to read right now and can't use your public library? Try free online resources such as Project Gutenberg, a library of over 60,000 free eBooks at https://www.gutenberg.org. Take a closer look at the eBook offerings you can access with your local library card.
As an example, Manhattan (Kan.) Public Library offers a digital library links hoopla for books, movies, music, and audiobooks and kanopy for more sophisticated movies. Manhattan's Library also provides access to Sunflower eLibrary for ebooks and Flipster for online reading of a popular magazines.
Wichita Public Library offers e-books and e-audiobooks from OverDrive through the Wichita E-Reads.
See what your local library offers you digitally. Many books are available right now online.
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