The Joke Is That It’s Actually April

Happy April Fools’ Day. Also: happy April. Also: it is genuinely Wednesday, which is already kind of a lot.

I’ve been thinking about the best practical joke April ever pulls on us. Not the pranks — the rain. You finally believe the warm weather is permanent, you’ve put the heavy coat in the back of the closet, you’ve started leaving the house with a certain spring confidence. And then April looks you dead in the eye and rains on you.

Fooled again.

But here’s the thing about April’s rain: it’s not malicious. It’s just honest. Growth requires water. The flowers you’re going to be grateful for in May are being quietly assembled right now, beneath all that gray. The joke is that the inconvenient part and the beautiful part are the same process.

That’s true of a lot of things, not just weather.

The inconvenient part and the beautiful part are often the same process.

What’s something in your life right now that might be both — inconvenient and quietly becoming something good?