Nothing is as beautiful as Spring…

I can’t believe I’m writing this wearing skirt, T-shirt and flip-flops, at one point it felt like this day would never come. The winter this year was so long, that R.R Martin books about endless winters and dreadful White Walkers suddenly weren’t that far from reality. I felt a bit like one of those frozen zombies myself, shuffling my feet every morning towards the windows to open the curtains and greet yet another grey, drizzly, miserable day. It was cold in the house, outside the house, around the house… my clothes were cold when I put them on, and cold when I took them off, and even the brighter coloured ones had taken on a grey, sad pallor.

Spring and Summer felt like one of those white lies parents tell children to keep them happy, like, you know, the guy that comes and delivers presents on December (we shall not name him in case a child reads this). Time takes a different dimension during winter, it folds on itself and slowly unfolds, in such a way, that a month of winter feels like an eternity of gloom, and last winter started pretty early, almost mid-Summer, and only left yesterday: 19th on April. That is a VERY LONG winter.

But, enough about the cold, and WELCOME SPRING! please stay with us for a long time, or at least till Summer, let’s have flowers, warmth, bees, sun, birds, butterflies, barbecues and picnics in the park.

This beautiful day deserves poetry, and this short poem by Billy Collins embodies exactly how I feel this morning, all windows in the house open, the doors that lead to the garden opened too, I am sitting in my kitchen, overlooking the garden that is exploding with colours, the orange of geums, the purple of lavander, pinks and lilacs from my sweet peas, the scent of herbs and the warmth of the sun… life is beautiful.

Today

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

Billy Collins.

Wherever you are, I wish you a happy day, and if you are entering Autumn, remember, Spring will come again 🙂

Namaste,

Paula