“The Birth of Spring”

“Far more powerful than all this sensory input, overwhelming really, was the deep draught of spring which he kept gulping down. Intangible, impalpable, invisible…but utterly overpowering was spring. It was a softness in the air through which he ran, a fragrance coming up from flowers newly blossomed, a joy in the flights of birds glad of winter’s end. It was a giddy cotton quality to the morning, some softness that made him thrill to be alive. As he ran, arms stretched to the sides and parallel to the ground like airplane wings, he felt as though he must take off and fly, such lightness and such propellant joy did he experience. He felt the earth truly awakening after its frozen Midwestern hibernation. Soft thawed earth in the gardens. Lawns that had been rock hard, now mushy and moist. Permanent canopies of pale gray cloud were now rent to reveal irregular but welcome patches of butterfly-blue sky. It was as if a long siege against the fortress of an evil prince had finally yielded success—the walls were penetrated and the light could pore in where only gray dimness had been. Asphalt roads glistened with a wet sheen reflecting the sunshine. Mica and other glittery minerals in the schoolyard gravel shone in dazzle as they fell through his fingers. More than all this was a vast primeval embrace that nature offered the world on this spring day. Like a fine and comely young woman emerging from a sea swim, glistening, the sun highlighting the glories of her form, hair shaken back, water drops beaded on her tanned flesh, a knowing smile of self-appreciation on her lips and in her dark eyes, Nature seemed this day to stretch her open arms towards him and invite him into the innermost spaces of her beauty. For she was all cleansed, all youthful, all glorious, and all charming; she had awakened from a long sleep and stepped out of her refreshing bath and offered herself to him to be quaffed in a deep gulp for the perfect intoxication of his soul.”