The Coming of Spring

March 11, 2014


Beloved:

        The herb patch looked dead as the rest when I combed winter’s dross from some garden beds yesterday.  Then I smelled it, not spring but summer, the heat and spice of oregano and rosemary.  Lavender, thyme, lemon balm and mint with just a whiff of chive.  Enough dried herbs to stock a restaurant kitchen raked into the yard to be trampled and pecked through by hens with hardly particular palates.  I found some green things too; tulip blades and a tendril of butterfly weed.  

     The tulips will survive winter’s final lash but probably not the butterfly weed.  She’ll have to try again in April.  It’s no new observation, that just below the dross of winter, summer is in full swing, hardly able to keep its proper place in seasons’ line.  All that’s required is a rake and the will to go outside.  

     I claim to want the spring and yet cling to the indoor warmth of winter, finding one more inside chore while the animals are desperate to go out.  The dog even went swimming yesterday!  The chickens scratched around the woods until evening. And I was ever so glad I finally put on my gloves and muck boots.  

Today is promised as sunnier still.  Enjoy the warmth inside and out.  peace & prayers, pastor annette