Mat stands in the change of light as he has been standing all along, but
changed. He knows he won't think of winter again; spring
has become imaginable. He feels an elation, then... Now
they will move certainly again towards what will happen.
~Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth.
This is my favorite book to read in springtime. I guess that's a little odd, but don't we all have our favorite songs to listen to in summertime with the car windows down? Don't we have stories we read at particular times each year, every year? Twas the Night Before Christmas, for example? To me, spring is way better than Christmas, and reading A Place on Earth is how I welcome it back.
Spring is imaginable for the first time today. It's gray outside (the picture was taken yesterday), and later it will rain. The air has lost its sharpness; it's calmed and gentled. When the space heater beside me kicks off for a minute, I can hear geese overhead. Later, when I step outside, the air will be pungent with the smells of soil and growth. That's what spring is, really: an awakening of the senses. Every year, when it comes, we all learn again how lucky we are to have the eyes and ears to enjoy it with. Soon, I'll be rejoicing, too, in having sturdy arms and legs to wield a rake and a shovel. My seeds have arrived; I'm bursting with excitement to go out and plant them.
Within in a month, there will be the first leaves of lettuce (maybe even the first fresh salads?). There will be compost turning, and raking, and muddy footprints in the house. There will come a day when I string up lights out on the porch, and sweep and mop a winter's worth of maple twirlers and dead leaves out of its corners. These are the things I thrill in thinking about as I'm waiting to fall asleep at night.
And you, what are you looking forward to in springtime?
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3 comments:
gosh beautifully written, i think that it spoke to my heart also because i too am just soo darn keen to get gardening. i did a big garden tidy and re-organise yesterday, created a little planting spot behind the shed. making the garden "mineish" (i cant do everything i want because were renting but figuring out how to make it work for me as best as possible)Over here im getting ready to plant broccoli, peas, pumpkins etc, mmm winter vegies
two words: yard beers.
in addition: grass on my barefeet, mud between my toes, the smell of earth as I turn it over in my hands... spotting robins, hearing the squeals of delight from children playing outside...smelling the grills going...watching the world wake up and come outside and enjoy the sunshine...rolling my windows down and blaring my music as I drive around the beautiful city where the most beautiful people in my life reside... and thanking the HP that I live another day to experience it all...
That's lovely, Kate! Laying in bed this morning, I heard a robin... now I just have to go out and spot his lovely self!
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