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Spring's Here -- Finally
by
Gregory J. Rummo
March 21, 2003
The waterfall behind our house at the lower end
of Lake Edenwold is a thundering cascade of spring
runoff from the melting snows of winter. It's been
a three-week drum roll leading up to today, when
the cymbal will crash and the earth will arrive at
that point in its orbit around the sun where it
will be light for as many hours as it will be dark.
Today is really the celestial climax to a prelude
whose crescendo has been growing now for a month in
the forests and lakes all around us. Beginning in
late February and through the month of March on my
Saturday morning hikes through the lower Highlands,
I have watched spring slowly unfold before my eyes.
A pair of hooded mergansers suddenly appeared on
our lake earlier this month and I heard the
unmistakable call of a wood duck. Several thousand
feet overhead, an enormous, migratory flock of
Canada geese undulated like strands of limp black
thread suspended against a steel gray sky; their
wild honking clearly audible in spite of the
flock's altitude.
Just a little more than one week ago, as I came to
a place in the woods where the forest suddenly
yields to what is a wild flower meadow in the late
spring and summer, the bare trees were filled with
hundreds of red-winged blackbirds, their
cacophonous chatter filling the otherwise still
morning air. It was an eerie harbinger of spring,
reminiscent of the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The
Birds." Later that same afternoon, a small flock of
cedar waxwings, another migratory species of
songbirds stopped for a rest in a nearby tree only
two blocks from our house.
Man has always been fascinated with the arrival of
spring. King Solomon weighed in on it when he wrote
these words from his "Song" in the Old Testament:
"See! The winter is past; the rains are over and
gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of
singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in
our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the
blossoming vines spread their fragrance."
The arrival of spring has always marked a rebirth
of sorts, not just for nature but also for us
humans. It is a time of awakening, a time to forget
the old and to embrace the new.
For most kids it's simply a time when they can play
outside longer, riding their new bicycles and
skateboards or shooting hoops in driveway
basketball courts. For some adults it can be a
serious time, a release from the seasonal
depression caused by the reduced hours of sunlight
during the dark months of winter.
But for most of us, it is a release from the
mundane things that after three months have added
up to the point where we are all just ready for a
change. You know: things like having to wear layers
of heavy clothing, white-knuckle drives to work on
icy roads, and leaving home mornings in the dark
only to drive back home again in darkness later the
same afternoon.
The crocus and daffodils will soon start peeking
their heads above last year's pine bark nuggets and
what's left of the winter snow still piled in the
beds under the white pines out by the road.
They are yet
another prelude to the appearance of more flowers
and birds: the warblers and the tanagers that will
shortly appear in the trees around my home.
I can't wait to inhale the aromas of things like
the warming earth, new mown grass, and fresh piles
of damp cedar mulch. And I am looking forward to
that first morning when I can sit outside on my
deck with a cup of coffee and feel comfortable
without having to don a fleece or a heavy woolen
shirt.
Whatever your passion in life, take time like the
busy King Solomon to pause from it for a moment
over the next few weeks and just sit and watch and
enjoy the spectacle of spring unfold before your
eyes.
And give thanks.
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