By Maureen Kalbus
Sheltering at home, looking out of our windows is uplifting. Spring has arrived! Trees are budding, daffodils, tulips, primroses and irises are sprouting and joyfully opening their petals; poppies are waving in the breeze; orchids, azaleas and birds of paradise are pushing through their foliage; cherry blossoms are painting neighborhoods in bursts of color. One morning, our fountain was covered in birds frolicking in the water. Out in the countryside, baby lambs are gamboling behind their parents. It is a glorious time of year. Within the week, we will be springing forward, altering our clocks and heralding longer hours of daylight. Light, freshness and new beginnings abound.
Flowers are one of the loves of my life, and I am reminded of the years in which I led parties of eleven year olds from my school in Belfast to The Netherlands, on educational tours. As our coach rounded corners on our way from Schiphol Airport, we were amazed at the red, orange, and white, carpets rolled out on either side of the roads. What a welcome! It eventually dawned on us that they were expansive carpets of tulips growing in the fields. Our visit to Keukenhof, a magnificent park spanning thousands of hectares, was breathtaking. The grounds had been designed with flower beds and natural wooded areas housing millions of colorful Spring bulbs, which were blooming in all their glory. Discreetly placed signs by each variety gave its name, so that visiting horticulturalists from around the world, could take notes, and order the bulbs they wanted for their businesses.The vision was unforgettable.
The most colorful market I ever visited was in London’s Covent Garden. In the middle of any night, it is an incredible beehive of activity, and a kaleidoscope of color.
Memories also flood back of childhood expeditions into Cregagh Glen to fill arms full of bluebells; the slopes of our church, St. Finnian’s, engulfed in daffodils, and stately irises standing guard down the side of my parents’ home.
Which Spring flowers do you delight in? Have you favorites? What memories do they evoke?
Springtime has always been welcomed. Robin Williams once said ” Spring is nature’s way of saying “Let’s party!” A Chinese Proverb states that “Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by men.” Skeptically, Mark Twain observed “In Spring, I have counted one hundred and thirty six different kinds of weather inside of twenty four hours!” In “Great Expectations”, Charles Dickens aptly wrote: “It was one of those March days when the sun shone hot and the wind blew cold: when it is Summer in the light, and Winter in the shade.” We can identify with that!
Over centuries, poets have heralded Spring:
William Wordswoth was bedazzled by daffodils
“I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils:
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never ending line along the margin of a bay;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance, tossing their heads in sprightly dance…
For oft, when on my couch I lie in vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.”
In “Pied Beauty”, Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote
“ Glory be to God for dappled things - for skies of couple - colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; fresh firecoal chestnut falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced - fold, fallow and plough; and all trades, their gear and tackle and trim...Praise Him.”
Recently, while out walking, I have been cheered on by crops of poppies, wildly splashing the countryside. Mary Oliver captured them in her poem “Poppies”
“The poppies send up their orange flares, swaying in the wind,
their congregations are a levitation of bright dust, of thin and lacy leaves.
There isn’t a place in this world that doesn’t sooner or later drown
in the indigos of darkness, but now, for a while, the roughage
shines like a miracle as it floats above everything,
with its yellow hair. Of course nothing stops the cold,
black curved blade from looking forward - of course, loss is the great lesson.
But also I say this: that light is an invitation to happiness, and that happiness
when it’s done right, is a kind of holiness, palpable and redemptive.”
From Creation, we have everything to thank God for. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep...Then God said: ”Let there be light, and there was light...God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed in its fruit"...God saw everything that He had made, and, indeed, it was very good…” Gen. 1 v 1 -31
In church services, we can resoundly praise God, singing wonderful hymns:
“Morning has broken like the first morning.
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird.
Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word.”
Eleanor Farjeon
“For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth over and around us lies.
For the wonder of each hour, of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, sun and moon and stars of light.
Lord of all to thee we raise, this our hymns of grateful praise.”
Folliott Sandford Pierpoint
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small.
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings,
God made their glowing colors, God made their tiny wings.
The purple headed mountain, the river running by,
the sunset and the morning that brightens up the sky…
God gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.’
Cecil Frances Alexander
As we step forth into each day, and look around us, we are surrounded by renewal, freshness and brightness. We are assured that “No matter how long the Winter, Spring is sure to follow.”
Life is full of new beginnings; miracles abound; hope is on the horizon.This Springtime, after a very long, barren Winter, there is so much to appreciate, and for which we can give thanks.
In Kate McIlhagga’s words, we ask
“God bless to us each sign of Spring,
each new green shoot,
each warmer wind.
God bless to us
rebirth.”
Warm wishes as you waken to each morning, brimming with God’s brilliant Creation,
Maureen Kalbus