Ahh, it's April! In Hawaiian, `Apelila. The awakening of Spring!

Poets and writers have always loved April. Flowers are revitalized, buds emerge and open. New beginnings. Magic. Melodies, like fragrant blossoms, seem to float in the air.

As writer Christopher Morley so lyrically put it, "April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks: Go."

The Romans called this fourth month Aprilis, meaning to open. With April, nature transforms. In the Northern Hemisphere, the chill leaves the air, flowers open, and birds fly northward. Everything appears green and fresh and new. In the Southern Hemisphere, there's autumn's dance of colors.

There's something about April that also makes you yearn for home. Poet Robert Browning, living in Italy, had this to say: "Oh, to be in England/Now that April's there."

April is a celebration of ripeness and rain.