Spring?

First day of spring? Ha! It’s just as dreary, gray and disheartening outside as it was yesterday, the day before, last week, last month… The sun is hidden behind that toneless, overcast sky that characterizes our city all through the winter. The ground is only partly covered with snow, snow that melted and solidified, snow that is dirty and dull. And the ground, where visible, is such a lifeless color that it’s neither green like the grass nor brown like the earth. Not seeing the sun for days and days on end is dispiriting. It affects not just my attitude, but my entire being.

The first robin of the season graced one of our backyard bushes, however, offering a glimmer of hope for the season to come. Someday.

There’s not a flower in sight.

Since early March, even during our all-too-frequent snowstorms, I could hear the Canada geese making their way back north. The sound of their calls from up in the sky, both day and night, is heartening, stirring in a way that I can’t quite describe. It buoys me up, lifts my spirits, perhaps only momentarily, but in a way that touches me deep inside. The robins’ return is also encouraging.

But indoors, we’re still burning wood, still congregating around the wood-burning stove as in the depths of winter.

Oh, for a warm, sunny day…