In the early spring of 1912, students crowded into a Harvard classroom for the final lecture of renowned philosopher and poet George Santayana. Near the end of his remarks, the students hanging on his every word, Professor Santayana glanced out the window. His eyes caught sight of a forsythia blossoming in a patch of lingering snow. At once, he quit speaking, picked up his gloves, hat, and walking stick, and strode to the door. He turned to the startled assembly and said calmly, “I shall not be able to finish that sentence. I have just discovered that I have an appointment with April.”1
He left his books, his associates, and the hallowed halls of scholarship and walked outside into the garden.
What was it about spring that drew him? Was it the beauty? The contrast of white snow and bright golden petals? Did this philosopher see lessons for the soul in the plant’s ability to tolerate harsh conditions and city life? Or did he find hope and inspiration in springtime’s promise of new life after the long, lonesome winter?
Santayana later wrote, “I like to walk about amidst the beautiful things that adorn the world.”2 If we are willing to drop what we are doing and truly see these beauties, we too can be renewed by spring’s wonders flowering around us. The diversity of color in the landscape can paint a picture of remarkable splendor, but too often we simply pass by, and it all becomes merely a backdrop to our busy lives.
If we could just take a moment today, whether it’s rainy or sunny, windy or still, to walk amidst the grandeur we call nature—all of us should have “an appointment with April” and, hopefully, keep and hold those precious moments close to our hearts.
Program #3998
1 Clifton Fadiman, ed., The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes (1985), 487.
2In John Bartlett, comp., Familiar Quotations, 16th ed. (1992), 588.