Monday, March 04, 2013

Melting Misanthropy


“... I particularly well remember; it was a lovely afternoon about the close of March... I presently fell back, and began to botanise and entomologise along the green banks and budding hedges... and I could hear the sweet song of the happy lark; then my spirit of misanthropy began to melt away beneath the soft, pure air and genial sunshine..." 

No, I don’t have any qualms about talking about one season melting into another while there is a nasty winter storm ravaging parts of the rest of the country. San Diego is a weather world to itself where the miseries of a true winter storm are almost never realized. While I may miss the signs of spring from my childhood like forsythia or lilacs, I don’t often long to return there and pay the price of having to endure winter to earn spring. Here, I may not have to wait for snows to melt, but even though our seasons may not be as obvious, we have dreary unmistakable winter that is now beginning to melt into spring’s optimism.
Here, spring comes in halts and starts, bringing lovely perfect temperatures and sunshine and the smell of clean green growing things one day, and cold dark clouds and rain the next. Today offers a taste of spring but with the cool tang of coming rain before the sun moves further south in the sky and squats directly overhead searing everything in sight. There are so many things out my window that need my attention I am drawn outside and ready to dig in.

The longer days are a relief, and with the promise of even longer afternoons when we move to Daylight Savings Time in a week. The end of winter usually finds me with a pessimistic spirit that has seemed tired and cranky and needing a daily nap. But those feelings are indeed beginning to melt away in the soft morning light of a brighter season to come.

 And if anticipating all the wonderful things about the end of a long dark winter and the coming of a promising bright spring were not enough to lift my sprits, J leaves Afghanistan in less than 30 days.

1 comment:

Martha in Michigan said...

<30 days = OUTSTANDING!