Spring is in my Step!

By Carole Brown

Every year, seasons tussle through the months over whose turn it is to share their delights with the world. Winter’s fading strength is pushed back by strong trees determined to pull on their leafy green clothes again. Brave little spring flowers thrust heads out of the ground to soak up every ray of sunshine they can glean. And in spite of the lingering or persisting cold snaps, spring pushes back, and has her way in bringing new life to the world again. 

What puts the spring in my steps?

The colors:

• Red Bud Trees: the purplish pink explosion against the duller, left-over somberness of winter. 
• The Ornamental trees: Bradley pears that flaunt for a short time their snowy white flower caps, the Cherries and Chinese trees with their darker reds that blot the landscape with vivid brightness. 
• The regular fruit trees: whites and softer pinks give a delicate touch of livening color and  promise of delightful fruits in the summer. 
• The flowers: the vivid reds, yellows and oranges of the tulips, the bright oranges of poppies, the daffodils arrayed in a variety of yellows and whites, the purest of white Easter lilies. 

The wild things: the delightful, purple violets, and flowers I have no names for, the tiny, barely-seen white and pale blue ones found in lackadaisical lawns, the larger, wild ones with smelly smells, and stubborn growth habits found in the woods and alongside country roads, the yellow and white daffodils that can not wait for spring time and often bare the evidence of a frost or two, yellow bushes that sway and bend with the winds, the heady-smelling hyacinths and sweet lilies of the valleys that peek from beneath branches of statelier growth, the purple and pink and white lilacs that delight not only the eye but leave their pleasant scent for all who venture close by.

All this and more puts spring into my steps. The beauty and persistence of God’s nature that determines a show of life for us, is one of the greatest blessings given to us. I love spring, and thank God each part of it that reminds me–anew–every year of how blest I am and have been to be able to enjoy all of it. 

Come on. Walk with me. Breathe deeply. Feast your eyes on the colors. Relax. Enjoy. Live. Step lively. 

Happy Spring!