Hello and welcome to Lily’s May issue.

May is a heavy month, the channel between the birth of spring and the summer to come.  For me, these days will be filled with much wonder and pondering.  I will wonder if my lilacs - having been hit by a few late freezes - will be determined enough to bloom anyway.  I will be thinking about my Mom, hoping that Mother’s Day brings her much hope and happiness, that she would know my love for her even from far away.  I will be thinking about all the women who have, with their own unique and unshakable wills, helped steer my life to the course it has taken.  I will be thinking about my own daughters, about the girls they are, the young women they’re becoming - they, with their own unshakable wills, all the ways they bloom.  I will ponder the strong red thread of our connection, I will hope I am doing all I can to guide them.

I will remember how the heaviest and most beautiful weights my soul has ever known came to me at less than ten  pounds apiece, that every day since the first one arrived thirteen years ago has been the first day of May, full of the promise of what is, what will be.  I will remember again and again how lucky I am.

No, May is not the soft month of lilacs, but the powerful red of life’s rush, of the lights we find each other by.  It is the red of hands chapped from steering small ships, of souls heavy in bloom.  It is the red of our connections, our creativity, of all we are and are determined to become.

For this reason, I am honored to offer you Lily in red and the gifts of some talented writers and photographers.  It begins with a street scene in Spain, brought to us from one of digital artist and hot air balloon pilot William Spreadbury’s many bright adventures.  The issue also features the work and words of editor and poet C.E. Laine, who is a lesson herself in living and growing in ways most only dream of.  Her interview was conducted and poems collected by Patricia Gomes.

Other work in the issue includes poetry by Priscilla Barton, Tara Burns, Jerry Garcia, Taylor Graham, George Lober, Peter Magliocco and Jim Moore; fiction by Angel Uriel Perales; and photography by Jill Burhans, Jean-Luc Elias, Mitch Miller, Donnali Peters and William Spreadbury.

Thanks to all of these contributors for sharing the power of their creativity, the light of their lives.  Thanks, also, to my assistants - Sarah, Kristi, Dan and David - for their guidance and wisdom.  Thanks to Patricia for her talent and her determination.  And thanks to you, whoever you are.  I hope it’s a month of wonder and pondering and that these days of May are good to you.