Bursting into Spring
Spring literally blossoms with metaphors about rebirth, new life, and new beginnings. It is my favorite season and is especially meaningful to me.
One reason is because I grew up on a ranch in eastern Montana and celebrated the release of snowbound winters with warm sunshine, hills rolling with green grass and quilted with wildflowers, and I witnessed the birth of new calves.
Another reason is one I discovered when I moved to Missoula in the western part of the state. Missoula is located in the bottom of a mountain valley and in the winter, it experiences the same type of weather inversions as the LA basin. Because of this, although winters there are more temperate than eastern Montana, it is often cloudy for weeks on end. That is when I discovered that I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)
Now I live in the Pacific Northwest, where it is more often cloudy and rainy all winter than not. In spring, I feel like the tulip that flourishes here, reawakening after a long winter’s hibernation.
Like a Tulip
Like a tulip, I awaken
Reaching up toward the warmth
Straightening my curled-in body
Pushing away the heaviness of the winter soil
Like a tulip, I awaken
Stretching my arms to the sun
My eyes open as the petals
Squinting at first, then opening wide
Like a tulip, I awaken
Hearing the buzzing of the bees
Sensing the grass grow
Feeling the earthworms move
I am the tulip, as I awaken
Reveling in the sunshine
Embracing its glow, its warmth
I am the tulip, as I blossom in the spring
