Rejoice in spring

Julia ♦ March 15, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

These faithful flowers just broke into bloom yesterday.
Here they are on March 1, 2023.

“I rejoice in the spring, as though no spring ever had been.” —Theodore Roethke

Spring was later to arrive this year than I can ever remember. Or did it only seem that way because I was so eager for it? A bit of photographic research gave me the picture above, which I took on March 1, 2023. To be fair, these blooms had probably arrived at least a few days before that, because they do last a long time if one avoids the temptation to cut them and bring them indoors. Although even then, they last a surprisingly long time. That’s one reason I love them.

Usually the daffodils and Okame cherry blooms surprise me with how early they arrive. Not so this year. In fact, other than the calendar, the first sure sign I had of springtime was the nightly song of the tree frogs, which I confused with birdsong the first year I moved here. They sing all night long, into the dawn, but I only hear them from my bathroom. They never disturb my sleep.

I was especially grateful to those sweet frogs this year, for reassuring me that spring really was on the way even if the flowers and trees seemed not to have awakened yet. I remember how much fun my sister and I had watching these adorable tiny green visitors fastening themselves to my patio door, catching insects that were lured by the indoor light as dusk faded to night.

I am still profoundly missing my sister, with whom I shared my joy of springtime in person or through photographs of sunrises and flowers taken in the early mornings. My springtime rejoicing is therefore somewhat muted this year, but all the more needful to me at this season of my life.

Whether you are looking forward to the warming of springtime in the northern hemisphere, or the cooling of autumn south of the equator, I wish you all the joys of cheerful color and milder temperatures. I’m grateful for seasons! Aren’t you?