Gina Malone, Editor
Spring Is Here! John Sperry’s painting on our cover proclaims it, and I’m a believer. What better messengers of the beauty of sun-warm, blue-sky, flower-fragrant spring days than birds, specifically Robins? Since we began hanging nest boxes, planting flowers and putting out bird food in an ever-growing collection of feeders at home, we’ve been inundated by flights of joy. If, like me, you never tire of watching and learning about our avian friends, there’s more good information to be found in this issue: an article on bird migration in our area and a visit with the White-throated Sparrow.
And what would a spring issue be without flowers? Our bouquet this month includes Lenten roses and trilliums. In April, when, truly, as Ralph Waldo Emerson says, “the earth laughs in flowers,” (and the world celebrates Earth Day), The Laurel will debut its Spring Home & Garden issue.
Perhaps it’s the birdsong, all of that flower laughter or our own souls wanting to burst out singing after being a bit caged up by winter’s cold, but springtime almost begs for music. Put your Irish on—we all have a little, come March—and listen to Celtic tunes at Story Parlor with Jamie Laval, or celebrate the legendary Leslie Riddle at Burnsville’s RiddleFest.
This is our Education 2025 issue, and we hope it opens doors to learning for you, whether you decide to take a class in upholstery, bread baking or playing blues harmonica. Let’s not forget the budding young artists—the Art League of Henderson County hasn’t! And read about the amazing resource and solace hub that ArtSpace Charter School became after Helene—for its students and the community at large.
Spring is such a reminder of hope. We need only look to the natural world to know that we can make our human world better, too. Spring is a reminder, also, of joy—not so much the pleasure that unexpectedly comes our way, but the kind we create. “I have really been thinking that joy is the moments — for me, the moments when my alienation from people — but not just people, from the whole thing — it goes away, and it shrinks. If it was a visual thing, like, everything becomes luminous.” Well said, Ross Gay.
Gina Malone can be reached at gina@thelaurelofasheville.com
