Is it Spring or Isn't it Spring?? Depends Where You Look and What You Focus On...

March is a funny time of year.
It's actually kind of neither here nor there.
The snow has stopped
Tulips have popped
And we wonder if Spring is really here?

I meant to write that as prose but all the rhymes just popped out as I was typing so I made it a poem.

There is no snow on the ground here, the sun shines brightly and rain falls from the sky the way snow was want to do a few months ago.

Day Lillies spring up over night and suddenly spread across parts of the lawn, helter skelter like in some pattern hard to define. Okay, some people obviously plant them by their mailbox but in other spots they just seem to pop up like wayward, pretty weeds.

Down the block there are two massive Pear Trees that are about to burst out in white blossoms. The other Pear Trees are barren and without a leaf anywhere, the smallest bud on the branch shows what will become green leaves and white blossoms.

Why?

It's all about the sunshine. The trees that get more sunshine burst forth with color and the ones that are hidden by a tall stand of Pine Trees go without early blossoms, sort of late bloomers.

There is some pink tree nearby that is so filled with the tiniest, pink blossoms that smell sweet and heavenly. Every other tree in the parking lot is not filled with blossoms of any color, just the one pink tree screaming out, "SPRING IS HERE!! SPRING IS HERE!!"

Is Spring here?

It depends on who you talk to...

The people who love the seasons and treasure every flower, every hour of Springtime are all smiles and aglow and don't know where to go first to get their first look at Spring. You can see them smiling in the street, taking walks and standing near a flowering tree on their tippy toes inhaling deeply with a look of almost nirvana on their faces.

Others will tell you Spring is NOT here, those are just a few mixed up trees that for some reason bloom early and everyone knows that Spring doesn't start until the Spring Equinox or March 20th which don't always come at the same time and then....there is another official day of Spring based on old legends. An analytical, scientist will tell you Spring is nothing more than a day on the calendar that has to do with the tilt of the Earth and drone on and on about degrees and orbits and it has nothing to do with flowers. In some countries, Spring is considered the time when the snow melts, differs on any given year.  And, as any good Red Sox fan will tell you Spring is when the Red Sox show up for Spring training at Ft. Myers and the year begins anew.

When I was a young girl in Crown Heights going to Seminary, I remember the first red tulip I saw pushing up through the ground in a small garden on Montgomery Street... I just stood there staring as the tulip had pushed itself up through snow that was still clinging to the ground, a promise of Spring. A few weeks later, I walked to 770 one Friday Night and stared up at the palest, spring green, leaves that were illuminated by the street lights. When the bus turned the corner that Monday morning and I saw the flowering trees on the lawn outside Kings County Hospital... I knew it was Spring! Spring in New York...awesome!

What does Spring mean to you?

Do you need to wait until the calendar tells you that Spring is here and the official story appears in the Newspaper to let you know the weather has warmed up and that your Pear Tree is filled with white blossoms?

I have a few friends who have told me that this is not really Spring. They wax poetic on rare March Snow Falls and complain about the heating bill and they only see Winter everywhere they look.

I think it's interesting that the trees that are in the light... blossom sooner, it seems to match up with everything I have ever learned. I smile when I walk past the two blooming Pear Trees and the ones that have not yet bloomed make me smile as well... as I know that when the two big Pear Trees are green with leaves, they will put on a later show for me.. they will come around.

To  me... when I go out and see the buds on the branches beginning to show, the color on the early bloomers blooming and I can take off my jacket for a few hours in the afternoon... to me it's clearly Spring, even if it's just a few weeks before the actual start of Spring on my Calendar.

What do you focus on?? This brutal winter that never let up in NY and stories of possible March Blizzards or do you focus on a Day Lilly smiling back at you, an early wink to what is really here even only some of us see it and others wait for the whole forest to come to life with new green foliage and flowering trees are in their prime, at their peak, with the most leaves on every branch vs a few small, pink, buds opening up against a deep blue, beautiful sky?

Like everything else in life... it's your choice. Take my advice... go for a walk, look around, see the color and the beauty that is beginning to show itself and think Spring  ;)

As for me I see moments of Spring everywhere, I don't need every tree to flower to tell me Spring has arrived and each new bud that begins to slowly unravel, open up and shows it's glory makes me smile.

So is it Spring or isn't it Spring?? I focus on the flowers and count each floral, scented hour and give thanks for each moment of majestic splendor.

I am living Springtime... even if I occasionally have to put on a light sweater :)