Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson
March 22, 2003: Bright Blooms

It's time to dig out the tie-dyes. On a day like this, you put away your dark winter clothes, your blues and your grays, and you pull out your purple batik dress with the butterflies on it. And you pull out your bright colors and your rainbows and let down your hair and go outside with your dog, tie a bandana around her neck and just jam.

It's that kind of a day.
So many times in your life, you think it's going to be winter forever, "I'm going to be down for the rest of my life. I might as well just bury myself in the snow and freeze." And then here comes the sun and here comes the blue sky and the birds in the trees and the beauty all around you (that was already there, but you didn't see it or appreciate it.)

And you walk down the street, and someone has hung blue and purple and green balloons out on their front walk. And they're walking around in shorts putting up more. It's just that kind of a day.

And people start breaking out their barbecues, and kids are running down the street, and you hear Bruce Springsteen being blasted. And there's the sound of basketballs bouncing off backboards. And the elderly women have put away their plastic raincaps and their wool berets and have pulled out their flower print bags and their purple jackets.

And the neighborhood echoes with voices. And even if you're too old to play hopscotch, maybe you skip a couple of times when nobody's looking. And green shoots are springing out out of the ground that just until a few days ago was super-soaked from the melting snow, gray chunks of snow still hanging around the edges.

And the birds are engaged in giddy conversation. And the squirrels are scolding each other. And you see the buds bursting from the ends of tree limbs. And somebody has pulled out all the cleaning products in their entire house, spread them out on the front porch in preparation for some kind of ritualistic spring clean-out.

And you just say to yourself, "That's a good idea. This is a good time to sweep out all that gloom and doom, sweep out all that self-doubt and insecurity. No more questioning of my own actions and motivations: why did I do things that way? Would I do it differently, would I know better? If I did it again, what would I do?"

And you just say to yourself, "There's violets bursting out on the lawn." And that says it better than anything you could say to yourself.

There's violets. Bursting out of the lawn. Violets.

 

Moral:
It's a great day for renewal.

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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