Something 'Bout the Southland in the Springtime

Posted by Paula

It was a long winter. Sicknesses and hospital stays, busted pipes and long cold nights. Although I always appreciate the changing of the seasons, this past winter was a tough one. But now, spring is here at last, and with it comes a renewal of spirit, a confirmation that after the darkest and coldest of times comes a new day, a new season, a new start. The restorative powers of spring are truly healing.

I know a woman who lost her husband during the winter, and she talks about how the bleakness she felt in her heart and in her mind were echoed outside her windows by the bitter cold and gray days of the season. She told me yesterday that she plans to visit Sewanee in a couple of weeks to experience it in the "loveliest of seasons" where she'll walk down the paths, across the quad, out to the bluffs and past the buildings and houses that she and her husband experienced together while students here in the 1960s. She is coming here to be healed by spring and by memories of a special time and place in her life. This mountain in the spring can certainly renew and rejuvenate.

Michael and I enjoy our home and our beautiful yard very much, and this time of year it is especially breathtaking. Yesterday, I noticed dozens of irises that are getting ready to bloom in one of our flower beds, and the clematis vines I planted two years ago have so many blooms on them that the weight of them threaten to pull the vine down! Everywhere new flowers, new life, can be seen poking up through the ground, seeking the warmth of the sun and happy for a new season of life. Just like them, I turn my face to the sun and let the warm spring breezes blow through my hair and across my skin. All of my senses are awakened as I hear the birds singing and smell the honeysuckle and newly cut grass. THIS is what I've been waiting for. This is what I dreamed of on those long, cold nights of winter. And in my place in the world, between Fayetteville in the heart of the Tennessee Valley, and the Domain of Sewanee on the Cumberland Plateau, it is truly one of the most amazing places to experience this season. Ah, Spring comes.