At the moment, while many of you are recovering from the ravages of a particularly brutal winter, I am sitting at my computer looking out onto a large bush of bright red hibiscus blossoms! On my small kitchen patio garden are three pots, one each of a red, a pink, and a yellow hisbiscus. In the trees outside are the loud songs of the birds who are beginning the long migration north, the same birds who will be in the trees of my neigbors and friends in just about a week.

My winter in Florida has been blessed with beautiful weather, good friends, and exciting Elders and Dream Groups. I think of a quote from Rachel Naomi Remen that reads, "I believe the secret of living well is pursuing unanswerable questions in good company." I have had good company this winter with whom to explore the unanswerable mysteries of life and death. As always, I will return north enriched and blessed.

This morning I emailed my northern friends and colleagues of my travel plans. I will leave Florida at the end of April and plan to arrive in Maine on May 2nd or 3rd. As I scrolled down through my email address book, I realized with a shock that I have as many names of Florida friends as I now do of Maine friends, and I felt a wave of grief wash through me that my life is still divided between two places, as if I could split myself and be in both places at once.

Since that dilemma is not only unanswerable but impossible to resolve, I do the next best thing: I bless each of the names as they scroll past me and think of each person with love. I am fortunate to have friends scattered over the country, even the world.

It will soon be time for me to turn my attention to packing the car and making the long drive north. I imagine Lauren and Lucas will be watching and on my doorstep before I've been in the Maine house not much more tha a day. I'm eager to see the many beautiful faces I've missed, and will miss the beautiful faces I won't see again until next fall.

"The Living Spiritual Elders Project" begins again in May. Participants in Florida laugh at the idea that our groups in Maine can rival theirs, and yet each place offers up such wonderful gatherings of great people. I look forward to seeing all of you in Maine and New Hampshire, and wish all of you in Florida and elsewhere (as you too scatter for the summer months) a season of love and peace.