Although we don’t get official recognition, April is Vermont’s Month of Mud. After a cold and fabulous season for snow sports, mud is for everyone. The most philosophical among us could write a sonnet or song. You may already be humming Vermont singer-songwriter Noah Kahan’s ‘Stick Season’ as you read along.

As the sun shines longer each day, mud and sticks start transforming from inert to active; growing begins in earnest. The Vermont landscape kind of forces us to be resilient, to adapt to the conditions out our door. May this be a natural dose of courage—to climb the muddy hill to home.

I’m concerned about the impact these tumultuous times are having on our students, our teachers, all our parents, administrators, staff, and all our community members. How might we be kind and more careful as we navigate the political and social wild weather ahead together?

“The Declaration of Independence was written with a feather,” Dean Young reminds us in his poem “Belief in Magic.” I see the fragility of democracy in this line as well as the amazing strength of a quill. What bird contributed to our founding guardrails? Goose, swan, crow, owl, hawk, turkey, or eagle? I read that Thomas Jefferson raised special geese to keep him in writing implements.

Some of you may know the children’s books by Laura Numeroff: If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. These books offer an important observation about learning — one thing leads to another as curiosity and passion inspire. The nib of a goose feather wrote a document full of dreams of what could be — a nation, no less. A promise so many of us still seek. These times offer an invitation to be our best creative selves as we respond to all that is happening in the nation and our communities.

The daffodils are emerging slowly, surely. May their fragility and strength remind us—we are in this together and our courage emerges when we find what connects us. In Dean Young’s poem there is another line, “I believe reality is approximately 65% if.” If we realize there are so many more ways in which we are similar, we’ll emerge with the daffodils, strong and bright, as we meet what’s ahead.

As you know, Justice is just us.