Bring on the Tulips

Harbingers of Hope

How do I know we have really made it through the winter months?  That’s easy.  The tulips arrive.  Tulips are my favorite flower.

 In my family especially, orange tulips have a meaning of great significance.  My four year old daughter Kelsey and I planted dozens of them one autumn.  But they opened up the very day she was diagnosed with cancer the following spring.  It made me furious! However, each successive year when they arrived it meant that she had survived another year.  Those tulips started as an angry reminder  and changed to a victory statement.  They are such a sign of hope for me, that I have chosen to use them for my new facebook timeline photo.  Check it out beginning March first.

I know, I know, it really isn’t officially spring just yet in my part of the world.  But it is creeping up on us, closer and closer.  It is only a couple of weeks away.  I can sense it on the horizon.  The birds are already singing in the early morning. I’m tired of waiting to celebrate.  Just humor me as I leap forward just a little.

 Things I Love About Spring

• Baseball season!  Yeah, I’m a fan.  I especially love watching kids play ball.  It is an excuse to be outside and gives me a socially acceptable place to yell (uh…cheer).
• Longer days.  More sun!  Time to stop hibernating inside.
• The smell of food cooking on the grill.
• Blooming trees and flowers.  Even the grass growing greener gives me a visual boost.

•  Hearing the birds sing as I leave my house early in the morning to go work out.
• Going to the store to shop for flowers to plant this year.  Considering the possibilities before I usually buy the same old stand-bys that cohabit with me because they don’t demand much care.
• Cooking hot dogs and making smores around the fire pit with the young people in my life.
• I have a spring birthday.  Lucky me.  I ignore the age as much as possible, but still love to be celebrated.
• When we are blessed with a warm day with sunny skies, we know we are winning the battle…it is NOT just a fluke dropped into the middle of winter to tease us anymore.

• I like to paint something.  My front door, or my wood wagon that holds flowers, or my wood rocking chair for the front porch.  Makes things look fresh.
• Getting back outside to my screened in (but unheated) porch.  Yay!  Let me curl up with a good book on my screened porch.

In my part of the world we are winning the the tug-of-war of the seasons. Bring it on.

Let’s play ball!

What do you like about spring?