Feels Like a Smile

Yep - time once again to change the wallpaper. It's not easy, being green... but it's worth it. St. Patrick's Day is next week! We've got to be green this month!

And speaking of green, did anybody else see what a beautiful day it was yesterday? I bet half the student body here at the Y was sitting outside on the campus lawns. Some were studying, some were pretending to study, and some had abandoned the books all together and were either asleep or just soaking in the sun. Whole classes, even, came pouring out of their buildings of habitation to do their work in the open air. I, for one, was reading a series of excellent short stories and doing my knitting. But that was the afternoon. The story I want to tell was in the morning.

My dear friend Katie and I decided to meet up for lunch, as we had a mutual hour of free time from 11 to 12. We spent the better part of that hour just lying there in the grass, barefooted and coatless, drinking in every ounce of sunlight we could touch. The breeze blew just enough to keep the day from being sultry, but not enough to usher away the warmth. After several minutes of soft companionable silence, Katie sighed peacefully and said, "It feels like a smile."

She was right. That's exactly how it felt. A big, warm, beautiful smile - the kind that is just on the verge of turning into a laugh.

In a week and a half, it will be March 21 - the Vernal Equinox, or astronomical first day of Spring. It's true - spring is right around the corner, and the whole world is smiling and singing in anticipation. The robins are coming back, the grass is coming up green, the trees are beginning to bud, the daffodils and tulips are bursting into bloom, and the golden sun is shining over it all. It is a time of renewal, of fresh starts and new birth. It is a time of coming back and revitalizing after the long, cold days of winter. It is a time for all things to live again.

Funny isn't it - even with all our internal heating and insulated clothing, we human beings come away from winter feeling like we've weathered something. It's as though the whole world breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank heaven - one more winter behind us, and another spring ahead."

I encourage you to get outside and feel the world smiling. You can do it however you please. My father will do it riding some thirty or forty miles on his bike. My friend Addy will go running around the grassy field behind our apartment in her bare feet. And I shall be found sitting in the grass, shoes and jacket forgotten, reading a good book and smiling along with the sun. May it be as glorious a spring for you as it is quickly becoming for me.

I am respectfully yours in Penmanship always. 'Til next time, my friends...