Spring

A Burst of Springtime!

March 14, 2019 by Nancy 14 Comments

As we dig out from a blizzard here in Colorado I’m longing for the early signs of Spring I remember as a child. Each year in late February or early March my dad would come into the kitchen of our Tennessee home carrying long branches he had cut off the forsythia bush in our side yard. To my sisters and me the branches looked just as lifeless as all the others on the trees and bushes outside, but Dad placed them in a vase of warm water on the windowsill.

The next day, we would marvel at the tiny buds beginning to appear. Within three days the branches would be alive with radiant yellow flowers! Although it might still be gray and gloomy outside, we had a burst of sunshine in our kitchen window, and a promise that Spring was on the way.

How can we bring that kind of springtime into the hearts and lives of people we know? We can do it literally, by forcing bulbs and delivering a basket of blooming tulips or hyacinths to a friend having a long winter of the soul. Or by planning a visit to a botanic garden where she can breathe in the sights and smells of a green spring long before it’s in full bloom in her neighborhood.

We can also bring springtime feelings into the souls of others, especially older adults, by helping them remember times in their childhood that were carefree and happy, or by listening patiently as they share fond memories of loved ones lost and days gone by.

Or maybe it’s the more permanent message of springtime renewal that we hope to deliver, one that will have long-lasting, even eternal effects. Martin Luther wrote, “Our Lord has written the promise of the Resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.”

Let the crocuses pushing their way through the late snows, followed by the tulips standing tall and the trees covered in bright green leaves, be the signs we need to remind us that Easter is coming! Easter, the day where believers everywhere celebrate the truth of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

So if, like the yellow forsythia, you deliver a burst of springtime to someone this year, consider adding a message of eternal hope. Remind them that Easter is coming! It could be just the encouragement they need.

Kites Keep Us Looking Up!

March 31, 2017 by Nancy 9 Comments

This time of year they begin popping up just everywhere. One in a field next to the grocery store. One in a school yard. What are they? The first purple and yellow crocuses? No, the first thing to pop up and announce that spring is really here is the high-flying, fantasy-making kite.

Is there any activity that lifts our spirits like successfully flying a kite? When the trees and power lines are avoided and the wind is just right, even the novice can soar to success. Feeling the tug of the string and looking up as the kite battles the breeze like a bird flying into the wind lifts us above ourselves, above our daily responsibilities and worries.

No wonder kite flying is an international sport with associations and conventions to rival those of physicians, attorneys or engineers. For just $40 a year, serious kiters can join the American Kitefliers Association (aka: AKA) and receive regular newsletters, a magazine, instructional tips, and discounts on kites of every imaginable size and construction. Competitive Kite Festivals and Fun Flys are held all over the world, and you can keep up with these events on the organization’s website, www.kite.org.

Tradition tells us kites were discovered in China when the wind blew a hat off a farmer’s head. The hat was tethered to the ground by a string and so lofted into the air without blowing away. Kites were unknown in Europe for centuries until Marco Polo brought them back from his travels to the East. Then Europeans and later Americans used kites for all kinds of scientific and military purposes.

There are many famous kitefliers. Benjamin Franklin used kites to prove the existence of electricity in the air and then invented the lightning rod. The most well-known fictitious kiteflier is Charlie Brown of Peanuts. Who can forget his kite-eating tree?

One of the most celebrated kitefliers in Colorado was the late Frances Weaver. The famous author began her writing career by selling an article on flying kites to Vogue magazine after she founded the Beulah Valley Association for Tethered Flight. She even put “kitewriter” on her business cards.

Describing her love affair with kites in her book Midlife Musings, Frances said, “There’s magic in a kite. There is also joy, serenity, challenge and frustration. (That describes most love affairs when you think about it).”

I once found a pink Barbie kite in our garage that was left over from a visit by two small granddaughters. Seeing it brought back happy kite-flying memories! I’m not sure what brought the loudest giggles of delight from them. Seeing the kite in the air, or watching Grancy and Papa running through the field trying to get it aloft!

Our house overlooks a large park and often we see kites of all shapes and construction dipping and climbing in the sun. April is National Kite Month. Maybe this year I’ll pick up a kite again and join those watching their colorful kites dancing against the blue Colorado sky. Happy spring!

Welcome, Fickle Spring!

March 12, 2016 by Nancy 15 Comments

Let’s face it. Spring is as fickle as a junior high girlfriend. With other seasons you pretty much know what to expect. Stereotypically, summer will be warm and sunny. Fall will be golden and cool. Winter will be frigid and blustery. But spring? She’s just unpredictable and flighty.

Of course the characterization of spring depends on where you live in this geographically diverse country of ours. When I was a coed at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, at the first hint of spring in March my friends and I donned last summer’s swimsuits and went up on the roof of the dorm to get started on our suntans. We applied copious amounts of iodine and baby oil and put sheets of aluminum foil under our chins to reflect the rays. (This tanning strategy is why most dermatologist offices are now populated with aging Baby Boomers dealing with the consequences of such spring folly!)

Now that I live in Colorado, I’m used to March being the month when we see our biggest accumulations of snow. Yet this month can unexpectedly throw in a day so warm and sunny that the college coeds of today go skiing in their bikinis! (And spring skiing is simply the best.)

We don’t expect spring to settle in and sustain herself in April around here either. My husband’s birthday is April 30, and I have more than one photo of him shoveling snow on his birthday. But by then hearty crocuses, tulips, and daffodils have begun to break through the ground and amazingly seem to survive the occasional blanket of snow. This is the month spring toys with our emotions until she’s ready to reveal herself in all her glory in May.

Of course I’m not the first writer to note spring’s whimsical nature and inconsistency. Odes and tips of the pen to spring from well-known poets like Keats, Dickinson and Tennyson are replete with observations about both the beauty and the capriciousness of the season. However, perhaps no poem speaks to spring’s determination to tease us as well as this little preschool rhyme:

Some days seem like winter,
Some are nice and warm.
Rainy days and windy days,
Maybe it will storm.
Warm or cold or wet or dry,
What will the weather be?
I think Spring is trying to play
Peek-a-boo with me!

However long spring dallies with your emotions this year, find joy in the gentle rains, the bird songs, the warm breezes, the green sprouts, the resilient blossoms, and yes, even the moist snow. Take the advice of fashion designer Lilly Pulitzer who said, “Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.”