Looking for the Official Start of Spring

Heavily
A freezing fog hangs
Suspends breath as a solid
Wool wrapped winter moon
Swings low in the soon spring sky
Indistinct and amorphous
Hinting at illumination
The way cold rain promises
Warmth

Just because the calendar said that last Tuesday was the first day of Spring, doesn’t make it so. February gave us 60 degree days, a complete thaw, robins returning by St. Valentine’s Day, and the spring peepers chirping away before the end of the month. It was not spring then and it isn’t really spring now. I’m still wearing my winter coat and I’m not putting my gloves away anytime soon. We are starting Holy Week heading into Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. Like so many Easters before, I’m counting on it raining. Growing up my Grandmother would buy us all new Easter dresses. She would make sure we had new hats and often new shoes and coats too. We would look so pretty. And then we would go to church and freeze. The Easter dresses were always designed for people in Florida and not Indiana – short sleeves and light weight chiffon fabric. The congregation would gather around the cross in the front of the church where the Pastor would say some prayers and then we would process into the church singing. On the rare occasion when the sun would shine and the temperatures would climb out of the 40s, it was beautiful and joyous. But in my memory there were only 2 or 3 times when the weather cooperated. Most of the time we would stand there with the rain making our new hats limp and soaking through the little coats. Our dresses with once crisp lace and sharp pleats became sodden and weepy. We would shiver and shake and finally squish our way back into church. Once there, we would sit and drip dry. And it was always officially Spring. So now you understand why I’m not convinced that Spring is really here. When I can switch to a lightweight jacket and put away the snow boots – that’s when Spring will really arrive!