The Arrival of Spring

When does spring arrive? We certainly haven't had very spring-like weather over the past few months. The calendar "first day of spring", on March 20, came and went completely unnoticed. It has seemed that winter has lasted for such a long time. I had noticed spring was approaching since I'd seen a few people at work wearing brighter clothes, their uniform of grey and black shelved. Driving to and fro to work I couldn't help but admire the pink blossoms on the trees. Still it did not feel like spring to me. Yesterday was different and I realized that for me "spring" is a feeling or a series of events that hearken the season.

It started when I was getting ready to go to our morning meeting and without thinking a lot about it I chose a dress with short sleeves. Then I thought about putting on pantyhose and my whole heart and body revolted. In fact when I saw my old faithful winter nylons and tights in the drawer I threw them into the garbage. A sure sign that spring was creeping into my heart.

In the rush to get from the house to car I did take a moment to notice that we were greeted by the red and yellow glory of the tulips in our yard, the tiny bright yellow & white daises and little purple johnny jump-ups in the lawn. By the time we got back from the meeting the upstairs of our house was very warm and stuffy and I just couldn't face the thought of wearing jeans. I pulled out my summer clothes box and put on a pair of capri's. I don't know if I was more happy to be wearing something that said "spring" & "summer" or the fact that the pair I chose happened to be very tight on me last fall and now they not only fit but were a tad bit loose.

By mid-afternoon when we let the dog out, we left the door open for several hours although it was somewhat on the cool side and we did put sweaters on. Still we didn't want to shut the door because the air was sweet and crisp. It smelled like spring. And then there were the "crunchers", those two things that added to all of the rest made it official--someone started mowing their grass and the smell of someone cooking on a barbecue wafted through the back door.

All of the events of the day came together in those moments and in my heart I finally declared it was spring.

Salynne ©"Spring" 2011