Think Out Loud - Renewal

As spring bursts out around me and the Boston Marathon celebrates and the economy slowly continues to recover, the idea of renewal comes to be repeatedly.

All around the scenes of spring are playing out - the dogwoods and cherry are heavy with flower, the forsythia are yellow, the big deciduous trees and the smaller deciduous bushes have the tiny leaf buds. Brightly colored birds are chittering everywhere but there are still only few insects and the temperatures are still cool.

The Boston Marathon has been in the news every day. How the people who had been there a year ago had managed to move forward, essentially restarting lives paused by the heinous act of a year ago.

Then I got to thinking about the term rebirth, also often used with spring. Seems to me that rebirth is not quite right, because that implies starting with a clean slate, without any of the baggage/burdens from the past. This is certainly not true - we remember the bombing; the plants and birds carry with them the results of last year. But it is a renewal, a restart, an opportunity for positive building on whatever had gone before. A time of optimism.

So here's to spring, may it come every year.

Do you have a favorite book about renewal (springtime or any other kind)? Drop a comment and share it with all of us.

Today's poem (a different kind of renewal):

The Morning

The morning whispers its greeting like a lover

Enticing with its beauty and its confidence.

The morning murmurs its promise like a child

Full of innocence and hope and intentions.

The morning arrives with an intensity belied

By its outward calm and quiet demeanor.

The morning leaves with imperceptible surety

Waving gently with a guarantee to return. 

Think Out Loud - Forsythia

Saturday I took a walk around the neighborhood and, despite the bright sun and the warming temperatures (about 45 degrees at 7:30 am), the landscape was still pretty barren - the trees were still leafless, the planters still empty, the lawns still the brown-green of dormant grass. It was like none of the plants believed the winter was done.

Sunday I took a similar walk, at a similar time. But on this walk I started to notice the forsythia, which makes up a hedge by many houses and roadsides in my area, were yellow with blossoms. Then I saw an ornamental cherry, suddenly heavy with pink and white flowers. As I made a turn I was brought face to face with a dogwood whose big blooms were on full display. None had been there the day before.

I could feel an extra bounce in my step, just from the bright demonstration of rejuvenation and renewal. It struck me, on Sunday as I contemplated the tale of two days, how quickly things can change. The birds had been singing more strongly each day since the last snowfall but only now did I believe, like the plants, that spring was here.

Spring Sky

Spring has come;

There are buds on the lilacs

The sun no longer is its weak

Winter self.

But the sky, the sky

This spring night

Harkens back to the winter.

Cold air gives a sharpness

The scarcity of clouds

An open vista

To thousands, nay, millions

Of tiny twinkling pinpricks.

Happy National Poetry Month!!

I'll use the fact that April is National Poetry Month to be inspired to start blogging again. "Life" was a little too busy in March, especially with the never-ending winter, but it IS time to diversify again and get back to at least some writing.

That said, I am going to try to participate in Think Out Loud, Throwback Thursday, and Feature and Follow each week. Then I am going to try and run a feature each week of one Newbery winner (or should have won - young adult book), one romance novel, and one science-fiction/fantasy novel.

Finally, I will try to post a poem a day. This is all very ambitious, please let me know how I'm doing and send me suggestions for any or all of the above!

Today's poem (from my upcoming collection, Moments to be published in multiple eBook formats through Smashwords.com, April 5):

Spring Sky

Spring has come;

There are buds on the lilacs

The sun no longer is its weak

Winter self.

But the sky, the sky

This spring night

Harkens back to the winter.

Cold air gives a sharpness

The scarcity of clouds

An open vista

To thousands, nay, millions

Of tiny twinkling pinpricks.

Think Out Load - Appreciating Spring

This is a very interesting concept meme.

One recurring thought, as the "worst" winter in many years hangs on in the American Northeast, is

Won't we appreciate spring more when it actually does come?

This was emphasized to me when I heard the Passenger song, Let Her Go.

Now, I like snow. I like the cold. I like the clear air after a snowstorm passes through. I like the sound of the howling wind on a dark night. But I also like finding the first brave flower of spring. Watching for the songbirds return from their winter exile. Seeing the trees burst out in new leaves. Feeling the warmth of a spring day. I cherish the changes.

So this spring, maybe, I'll have company in appreciating L'Differance! At least a little more than usual.