Floral Blizzard

On the walk home from work today, I saw a bit a blue sky and sunshine between the stormfronts. My husband and I decided to take a drive down to this park we know.

There, we walked around the grounds as the sun slowly sank into the cloud-draped western horizon. Our spring jackets were zipped to our chins and our fingertips grew cold in the chilling air. But we didn't seem to notice that.

The flowers had pushed up from the ground in the thousands and the trees were in bloom, especially the pink ones down by the main pond/lake. Whenever the wind blew it produced a snowstorm of pink petals that my husband and I strolled through. Eddies of wind currents swept the petals that were already on the ground, making them stir and sway like pink rivers along the winding roadways.

We strolled along each small streams and hopped from rock-to-rock across one of the icy waterways. And, as if that wasn't childish enough, on our way back to the car, we scooped up handfulls of pink petals and dumped them on each other and tossed them high into the air to stir up our own floral blizzards lit by the setting sun, dancing on the wind currents to the music of our laughter.

Spring time
Heart of a child
Simple Joys in life

- ESA

Signs of Spring

Last evening, I actually got out of work before sunset for the first time in a long time. So my husband and I walked the two-and-a-half miles round trip to the supermarket in the cool but sunny New England late afternoon. As we crossed the broad expanse of parking lot, we faced the setting sun and had a spectacular view of twin rainbows on either side of the sun. They were just small striped Stradivarius clouds, but they made it appear like multicolored sideburns.

On the way home (when the sun wasn't in our eyes), we could see that the first signs of tree buds were starting to finally emerge around us (Southern New England). Flowers have been pushing up from the soil for the past three weeks, but the trees seemed to be half-asleep this year. My husband pointed out that it doesn't feel like Spring where Mother Nature just explodes with life, color and scents all around. Instead it's like Ma Nature is dragging herself from a restless winter's sleep and really doesn't have her heart in it this year.

One thing that crossed my mind early this morning was if nature is affected by people's emotions. I've read several reports that argue plants can recieve impressions from people as well as from other plant life. With the global recession, fears of the future and overall unease in people today, can we actually be affecting the plant life around us collectively? It's an interesting thought.

But if it IS true. I wonder if people went around purposely being happy as they strolled down the sidewalks and through parks, would the trees start to sprout with their own signs of life and vitality.

It's already been shown that a nice day does brighten our own outlook. Maybe our outlook can help brighten the day.

- ESA