Delighting in the change of seasons

Happy spring.
Our weather may have been mild this winter, but spring is still welcome. It is the earliest spring has arrived since 1896.
The calendar date that signifies spring is not as arbitrary as it seems. Supposedly, spring begins on the spring equinox, when the plane of the Earth’s equator passes through the center of the sun. This happens twice a year at the beginning of spring and autumn. At the equinoxes days and nights are approximately equal in length everywhere on earth.
It is the timing of the spring equinox that determines when eggs and hams go on sale as Easter is the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox. So this year we have the equinox on March 20, followed by the full moon on March 23, which brings us to Easter on March 27.
Most of us know that the real season of spring seldom begins according to the calendar.
Real spring begins when the first of more than 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies that are made each year start appearing on shelves and jumping into unsuspecting grocery carts. I think the sugary Peeps join hands with them so they don’t have to take the leap alone. Wait, that can’t be. They don’t have hands.
Real spring begins when the air changes. Every season has its own smell. Winter smells cold and desolate. Summer smells full and ripe. Autumn smells like rotting apples and crispy leaves. But spring, it smells like hope and energy and newness.
Bright colors pop up out of drab ground. Sweet aromas waft through the air. New life is everywhere.
There are others signs that spring really has arrived. One of our evil black squirrels has decided that one of the eaves on our front porch is the perfect place for a nest. I saw her carrying a mouthful of leaves to cushion her nest. She glanced at me as I cleaned out the flower bed, decided I was harmless and went about her business. If only I could persuade her and her friends to quit digging holes in the yard I would quit referring them as evil.
There are a pair of doves that have been courting in the poplar tree. One will be on a branch. The other will land close by and sidle over for a snuggle. They do this multiple times a day. I wonder when they will choose a nesting place. Maybe they will pick the spruce tree for a home like they did several years ago.
It seems like things change rapidly in spring. One day the snowdrops are peeking out of residual snow, then the pussy willow blooms, crocuses flourish and disappear to be followed by the next plant that puts on a show and on and on.
I wonder if that is the real message of Easter? That what seems like an ending is really only a prelude to the wonders that are yet to come? Didn’t Jesus show us that death is not the end? Even if you don’t believe, doesn’t the new life all around give hope that just when things seem the worst, there is still hope?
I don’t know.
All I do know is that the seasons change. Nothing stays the same. And I am so grateful for that.
I like the energy that sunshine and warmth bring. The calendar says it is spring. On cloudy, dreary days I am convinced the calendar is wrong. Then I smell a hyacinth in bloom and I know that spring is here for real and it will be Easter before we know it.
Happy spring to one and all.