Yesterday was the first official day of spring. To a girl who loves warm weather, that is something to celebrate. Thankfully, spring has been gradually showing herself for the last couple of weeks (with the exception of the snow we had at the beginning of March!). While fall is still my "official" favorite season, there is something so wonderful and refreshing about spring. I love the colorful flowers, the blooming trees, the perfect blue skies, the extended daylight hours, and of course, weather that is warm enough to wear skirts and flip-flops again.
However, I think there is something else about spring that makes it special...we have to wait for it. Through the bitter cold months of winter, we wait expectantly for spring to come. It never disappoints us, although sometimes it takes a little longer than we'd like. (Actually, I always wish it would come sooner--one month of winter would be plenty for me.)
The "waiting for spring" part reminds me of one of my favorite old picture books. The book is called Three Friends Find Spring by Judy Delton and is out of print now. The story is about three animals, and Duck is very depressed because of the winter so Squirrel and Rabbit try to cheer him up. Though they try various efforts (including ice-skating, painting Duck's living room bright colors, dying the snow the color of grass, etc.), each attempt fails to cheer up Duck. I love the end of the book though--Duck joyfully calls Rabbit and Squirrel over to his house because he has just seen the first daffodil peeking its head up, and spring is finally here. Because I loved reading this book as a child at my grandparents' house, I ordered it for my mom for Christmas. My philosopher brother read it and told me that the plot was pretty disappointing...the friends try and try to help Duck and never succeed. As I explained to him, that is the beauty of it! Sometimes in life, we just have to be there for our friends and wait for things to work out in their own time...they usually do, just like spring always arrives each year.
