This is a special time of year. In a small corner of our rather tiny backyard, the most wonderful pair of tulips are back in bloom to help welcome the sweet springtime.
    They are gazing up at the sun after having waited patiently for the New York City weather to warm up. They finally opened up this morning.
    I look at the mountains of boxes inside the reefers in air cargo buildings around the world; I have marveled at the fields of flowers at The Keukenhof; I gaze in wonder at the huge expanses of tulips on Park Avenue in Manhattan; I enjoy the tulips our son brought home as bulbs some years back after a trip to Amsterdam, planted in a neat row elsewhere in our garden.
    But this brace of supple beauties are sentinels heralding spring. Thirty years ago we transplanted them from an Easter pot, and every year since they have come back to say their brief and joyous hello. We depend on their lovely contrast of robust red and delicate yellows to welcome the season.
    Our tulips are a touchstone of another year holding the promise of the long, warm summer ahead.
    Now thoughts of backyard furniture, cookouts, hot dogs, and marshmallow family time are with us.
    The message of the flowers is always the same: hope, renewal, and beauty. They chide us to take a pause in the day’s occupation.
    Often during the year, sometimes long into the season when they are gone and even during the winter while they are sleeping, I will remember these beautiful flowers.
    Take a tip from the tulips. Look up at the sun.
Geoffrey

Vol. 15 No. 32
FIATA Goes Green In San Antonio
Not Easy Being Green
BIFA Backs Multimodal May
Chuckles For April 21, 2016
Eye In The Sky
Prince Was American Royalty
Passover Blessings