SPRING

Spring is the loveliest time of the year and in the northern hemisphere there are already signs that it is beginning. Spring, when nature dresses herself in her newest clothes and what appeared to be dead, suddenly comes alive as life stirs under the ground and the sap begins to rise: Spring when male birds almost overnight grow the most beautiful plumage and when both males and females feel the stirrings of fresh life and begin frantically to build new nests or in some cases, to refurbish existing ones: Spring when colour returns to an earth starved of it during the cold days of winter; the gentle, white snowdrop, the pale yellow narcissus and primrose, the buttercup and daisy, the bright yellow daffodil, the even brighter yellow forsythia, the crocus in white, yellow and purple, the brilliantly coloured tulips that deck the fields in Holland and Eastern England: Spring when the air becomes perfumed once more, as lilac, jasmine, stocks fill the air with their scent.

Spring when the horse chestnut trees grow their ‘sticky buds’ that will eventually burst into bloom like huge candles decorating a Christmas tree: Spring when the leaves burst from their buds in that fresh, gentle green that will only last for a few weeks: Spring when the grass grows an inch overnight and is full of juicy sap that fattens the udders of the cows as they graze contentedly after a winter of hay and artificial food: Spring when birdsong increases in volume as more and more birds return after their winter migration and sing joyfully in courtship to their mates: Spring when all that lives seems to take on a new energy as the blood responds to the new season in the same way as the sap in tree, grass and flower.

Spring when optimism returns even to those jaded after witnessing more Springs than they care to remember! It seems we shed our cares and worries as we shed our heavy winter coats and replace them with lighter and more colourful garments. As colour re-appears in the outer world, so it also re-appears in our inner world. What seemed such a great effort in the dark days of winter, becomes a pleasure as the lightness of our spirit raises our heads and brings smiles more readily to our lips as we hear the joyful sounds of young life all around us celebrating the energy of the new season.

Robert Browning captured the spirit of Spring so perfectly in his lovely poem “Home Thoughts from Abroad.”


O, to be in England
Now that April 's there,
And whoever wakes in England
Sees, some morning, unaware,
That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
In England—now!

And after April, when May follows,
And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
Hark, where my blossom'd pear-tree in the hedge
Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray's edge—
That 's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The buttercups, the little children's dower
—Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Though it is still only March, the portents of the coming April abound; each day the pale sun grows warmer and snowdrops and crocuses appear overnight, braving the chilliness of the air that is still in the service of Jack Frost and makes steam of our breath in the clear, morning air. New life, new hope, new joy, new expectation: Welcome the Spring and encourage it to awaken hope and joy in your breast also.