COMMENTARY: JUNE IS A MONTH WELL WORTH THE WAIT

I waited 365 days, that is 52 weeks and 12 months, for June to come again. So now it is here and has been worth the wait.

First, even before June, came the rains to wash the face of the earth "behind the ears and between the toes" as Mama would describe a proper bath.

The springs, creeks and rivers are running again, flushing away winter accumulations of debris. Down the mountains, across the meadows, into the valleys, the sweet cleansing water comes to fill the rivers which complete the cleaning on a big, professional scale. Old logs and limbs are loosened and floated away. The roots of new saplings and shrubs are watered, lending strength to their tenuous grasp on life.

I can visualize the creek and river banks I regularly visited in past years. They will now be arrayed in their fanciest apparel. In the meadow brooksides there are milkweed stalks trying to get a jump on the elderberry bushes, but they never overcome the height difference. In some places there are little cattail spears, joining in the upward thrust. One almost overlooks the little buttercups that come wandering down through the meadow grasses to open their golden flower cups right where the waters can splash on them. There might even be some wild strawberries and, of all things, a watermelon vine growing from some seeds left there at last summer's picnic.

June brings the red-winged blackbirds too. They love the watery places. One can hear their protest of invading their territory long before they came into sight.

Seems like June would be a better starting point for the year than cold January, dressed in flowery apparel, shining clean and perfumed with all summer of sweet fragrances that she is. But the calendar makers, after much maneuvering, appointed her the sixth month and, after jockeying about for several years, gave her only 30 days. Thankfully she can arrive a few days early and stay a few days late, no matter what the calendar and almanacs say.

Who named this lovely month? The answer is still up for grabs. Since Julius Caesar, a Roman, had much to do with settling the calendar and since this stretch of time was dedicated to the Juniories, the lower body of the Roman law, it is thought that was what caused June to be name June. There are other suppositions. I like the one put forth by Leigh Hunt who says June was named for Juno, the wife of Jupiter, king of the gods.

However it all evolved, poets from the earliest times have written odes and paeans of praise for the beauty of the month. I think James Russell Lowell summed it all up better than anyone when he asked, "What is so rare as a day in June?" And then proceeded to answer his question in terms of whether we look or whether we listen, we hear the murmur, see it glisten.

Besides all the suns and skies and flowers of June which Helen Hunt Jackson wrote about, what I like best is the object lesson of the verities of life which June shows us. It's a poster month, speaking of fundamentals -- certainties, forces and rhythms that transcend man's little plans.

REJOICE!

Jean Bell Mosley is an author and longtime resident of Cape Girardeau.