Memories of Spring

The signs are everywhere now. Spring, all two weeks of it, will soon blossom in north Texas. We may have a few cold snaps to get through, but Spring is here.

The Arizona ash in my front yard has already begun the process of budding, having has dropped thousands of spent buds on the grass and sidewalks in front of my house. I'm not quite sure what the things I call "spent buds" really are, but they make a bit of a mess. Birds seems to crave them, crowding almost every branch of the tree and fighting for the opportunity to taste what they must consider glorious morsels. When I open the front door and walk outside, the birds act as if a shotgun blast had shaken their tranquil worlds, taking flight en masse, only to return almost immediately. It's as if an invisible hand had shaken the branches hard, bouncing the birds several feet off the branches...and they just fall back in unison to land on the same branches.

Spring is a time that my wife and I used to take long, leisurely drives on the back roads of north and central Texas, viewing beautiful fields of wildflowers along the roadsides and down rarely-traveled county roads. We would join hundreds of families in their annual quest for natural beauty, and we'd find it. The Indian paintbrushes, bluebonnets, Indian blankets, evening primroses, wine cups, butter cups, and a thousand other beautiful flowers erupt almost overnight, creating brilliantly-colored landscapes that invite the artist in all of us to want to capture the beauty. We'd see parents placing their children in these beautiful fields so they could take photographs. I can imagine that many of those photos were indeed just as beautiful and precious to them as anything else they own. Years ago, when my wife's mother came to visit us in Texas, we took her for a long ride and stopped, along with the other families, to get some photos. We still have a picture of my wife and her mother sitting together smiling in a field of lovely bluebonnets.

Business responsibilities and time pressures have taken a toll on those long, leisurely drives. We rarely do that anymore. Instead, we cram our outtings into stolen moments among what seem to be endless weekend errands, rarely taking the time to just enjoy ourselves and the world swirling about us. The pace of life, not just ours but everyone's around us, has taken a toll, too, by making it hard to drive slowly along those country roads. Cars speed by, horns honk, people are in a hurry to get somewhere or do something. They don't even seem to notice the beauty outside their car windows. It's a pity, because there is so much beauty for them to see. Even here, even in north Texas where the landscape is not one of the area's drawing cards. It's not just the time, though, it's the number of people and the space they need. Now, it's necessary to drive farther away just to find fields of wildflowers; development has destroyed many of the places that were once prime viewing areas for wildflowers nearer to us.

It's time for me to start feeding the lawn so the grass will come in stronger than the weeds. I should be outside right now, pulling weeds from the flower beds and tidying up the yard. I remember a time when I enjoyed doing that. Now, my knees cringe at the thought of it. I remember when I delighted at the smell of freshly-cut grass, how energized I felt when I first smelled grass clippings in the Spring! I still delight at smelling freshly-cut grass, but I prefer someone else to do the cutting. All these memories flood back when I think Spring will be here soon.

But when I remember Spring, I must also remember that Summer comes quickly on its heals, with miserable heat, parching sun, and annoying insects. What a happy thought! Come on, I have to tell myself, enjoy Spring before you let the Summer heat get you down!