THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING VS. THE FIRST SPRING DAY

We can establish the first day of spring with ease and certainty. That’s a matter of the calendar coming round to March 20. The coming of the first spring day, on the other hand, is a sweet surprise. “The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month,” poet Henry Van Dyke observed.

Even as I have anticipated the first spring day, I’ve begun other spring rituals. I’m made my first stewed rhubarb and I’ve lived for a week with a flower arrangement of flowering dogwood. The beauty of the spare flowers on the leafless branches takes my breath away. Now, about a week later, delicate green leaves are beginning to appear. This IS spring’s story. My enthusiasm for this story is without limit. I never tire of it.