A Baby's First Smile

That feeling you get when your newborn baby, beams that gummy smile at you is pretty special. It is a feeling a parent gets that is so fleeting, that you forget it a minute right after and don’t ever think about it or truly remember it again. There will be millions of smiles in life. But the first smile is like the first spring rain and vice versa. Spring in general, gives you that feeling of the first time, for something. It’s renewal, a refreshment of the spirit, after the doldrums of winter.

We’ve spent the last six months give or take, in a kind of lockdown, or house arrest, if you will. From fall through winter, we sequester ourselves more than at any time of year. Yes, there are diversions exclusive to those two seasons, but for the most part the cold winds, temperatures, and snows, keep us indoor more than we need.

We have spent the last couple months of these two seasons, indulging in comfort foods, celebrations, and gift gorging, and we are now ready for something new. We want our freedom. The kind of freedom you experience under open skies, sun-drenched afternoons, and fragrant breezes. We want to shed heavy clothing and layers, shed the blankets, and shed the pounds we have been lamenting for the last few weeks. It’s almost here. She is peaking around the corner of the building, whispering to us. I’m coming. Gird your loins.

Spring is the most beautiful season. It exemplifies newborn life, a rejuvenation of every living thing. From trees, to flowers, to man and beast, everything is fresh and new, giving a feeling of freedom in a way that summer does not.

Summer is an outdoor, fun in the sun, season, yes. But it feels established, not new. It’s the adult, where spring is the newborn, the child, and the adolescent.

Spring on the other hand is like a new car, a new home, a new baby’s smile. All these things make us smile and feel good. We want more of it, to be there more, and have it longer.

The temperatures are mild and getting milder. The sun has moved into its new place for the next six months, and the days are getting longer. We are not out of the woods yet from winter’s hold, and these untimely warmer days are, more than likely brief, but the harsh bitterness of winter is gone. Winter will come back at least once, before he gives up the ghost, and is overtaken by spring. Still, there is a promise hanging in the air.

Though it feels sudden, spring has already begun her entrance to the gala of life. The sun has shifted, while we were not looking, and now seems to shine brighter and at new angles. A window that was darker and offered no warming rays, has suddenly become a sunlit refuge for a sunbathing cat or dog, a place a plant wants to live. Incidentally, my resident sun goddess, Lola, is relishing this window. She plasters her little butt, smack dab in the center for the suns glow, and roasts herself most of the day. She is medium well, in no time.

Spring brings this new air with her. So difficult to explain, but this new air is refreshingly clean. It’s the feeling of a shower after a particularly hard workout or task, where a person is sweaty, covered in dirt and dust. The person showers, letting the hot sprays, massage the tired muscles. The minute the water has been turned off, and the shower curtain or door opened, the person jumps out of the shower and feels new, invigorated( A note to all, please don’t jump out of the shower. Walk or step out. The talent in this story is a trained, stunt person) .THAT, fresh clean, sparkling new shininess is the feeling of the spring air. It’s changed and if you pay attention, you will notice its difference from winter air.

The sun, becomes like a child at bedtime, and doesn’t want to go to bed so early now. She, like a wise child, incrementally, stays up later and later, coaxing and distracting, until the next thing you know, she is up all hours of the night. Her bedtime gets later and later, until it seems night time is short, and the hours of sleep are far less than in winter. Why? because we don’t want to go to bed so early either. We all want to stay up, out, and free longer, to enjoy spring. The sun is our partner in crime, she makes sure we have the light and time to do so.

The first spring rain comes. With it comes life. I can almost feel the earth slurping the water. I know snow is water too, but rain is like a gulp of water, where snow is like a drop by drop sip.

I am a lover of rain showers. I love everything about it. The drenching feeling of being soaked bone deep, the sating of a six month hiatus from storms, arriving to save us from a thirst we didn’t know we had, and the salve from winter skin’s dry itching. It’s truly spectacular.

Rain has a smell, too, and the spring rain’s smell is different from the autumn rain’s smell. Autumn’s smell is a cold decaying of earth and leaf. Spring’s smell is fresh, clean, new, untainted and pure. Both coincide with their respective season’s purpose, but I often wonder if people notice it. I also, wish I could hold it for more than a brief moment, but the feeling is a tap on the shoulder by a wisp. You turn around and it’s gone.

Spring’s is like a new brand of water, from a newly discovered aquifer. While fall rains seem to feel like a last gulp from a canteen in the dessert, one you must savor because you don’t know when you will get another, spring rain is like arriving at a magnificent water fall. You see it cascading over the cliff, you see its terminus into the body of water, and all you want to do is touch it, swim in it, to it and behind it, to explore its secrets.

Spring is full of secrets too. She covets what she is doing below ground, as she sings sweetly to the seeds, bulbs, mycelium, and trees. She offers the earth her murmurings, in hushed tones and in a language only nature speaks, promising them a constant supply of warmth from her friend, sun, and from her thirst drenching elixir of life, water.

All manner of life is eager, anxious, like a child the night before Christmas morning. They know it’s coming, they can’t wait to see it, they can hardly sleep from the crazed need to explode into the sheer pleasure of what comes next. Seeds sprouting, bulbs bursting from the earth, natures early risers, trees budding, as they prepare to coif their beautiful updo’s, and even mycelia, natures late sleepers, who wait for the hight of the season’s rainiest arrival, to emerge, are all chomping at the bit.

Beasts are eager for spring too. They have used up their stores of food and fat, and want to awaken and be active, celebrating life with the rest of the earth and mankind. They have been away, or hold up and secluded from others of their kind for too long and want to socialize again.

Birds and birdsong return to our mornings. The first collaborative singsong of the redeye flights of birds, sing for us in the early mornings, reminding us that the world and nature create sweet music. As our natural alarm clocks our elevator music, per se, they make every day a day of song (go buy birdseed now, it’s their tip). It is truly astounding, if you stop and listen.

Animals mate, after a winter of forced, abstinence, preparing the issuing forth of, the next generations, of their kind. You experience it everywhere. Bird eggs, in nests, fledglings, baby animals being born almost daily, out in the open. We witness life, new, regenerated, revitalized, restored, as it happens in livestream.

Mankind also gets busy, partaking of spring, planting, tilling, and cultivating the land. They aid and tend to the new fauna on their farms. We begin new projects, clean out the old tired winter staleness, and freshen our homes. We fired the grills, start having cookouts, and begin to enjoy outdoor activities.

Spring is constantly at work. She has been preparing for her first hard day at work for several weeks. And then she comes with her rain.

The very first rain is the most intoxicating thing in nature. The fresh smell is only a small part of its wonder. It cleanses away, winter’s bitterness and brings us joy. She feeds the earth and nourishes our spirits with the promise of what the land’s drunkenness on her life giving tonic, will create. While we have a general idea of what will grace our vision, she always manages to surprise us.

For me, in particular, the first clap of thunder, the first flash of lightning, and the first rain that comes with the three musketeers, are all equally, enthralling.

I love the unpredictable flash or light that spiders its way across the sky, where it started or where it ends, an unknown phenomenon. I love the fact that it is a small, warning, a peek-a-boo, for thunders roar. The lion in the sky, states its purpose to bring us rains. It cracks like a fissure has just opened in the earth, and shakes all of humanity, reminding us that we have no control over it. The three musketeers are kings of life’s jingle. They come and go as they please, reward some, and punish others, their reasoning a mystery to us all.

I love the pour, as the spigot is opened up completely. It makes no difference to me if it is a small trickle, or a full throttled, wide open gush. I love the sound of it, the smell, the feel.

I love more than anything to open doors and windows and hear it throughout the house. I love to sleep to it, as it serenades my slumber, calming my spirit to a degree that rests my soul. It feeds me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well as physically. Maybe I am a plant. Nah, but I did stay, at a Holiday Inn Express. (I amp sure some of you are scratching your heads right now. Figure it out. lol) I love the humidity, that rains bring. My hair hates it, but, oh well. You can’t please everyone.

The other day we had our first spring rain. It was magical. Thunder and lightening didn’t come to the show, but rain, came in all its splendor. I threw open the windows, absorbed its sounds, its smell, and its moisture, and felt at peace. It inspires me as it does, so many others. I seem to become more creative.

I like to read when it rains, I like to write when it rains, and I love to draw when it rains. I like when it makes me happy and brings me contentment, and also like when it makes me somber. I even appreciate when it makes me weary from too much of its abundance. It is all encompassing in its gifts.

But most of all, I love tits first appearance, the first shower of warmer waters, the promise. I know that in a couple weeks, the earth will explode into color and sweet bouquet. I love that I won’t have to be the only one cooking. The man, the fire bringer, make fire, cook food, feed wife. Yes, my caveman will cook and I love it. I get a respite on those days and get to feel more pampered.

When I woke up the other day it was raining already. I opened the curtains and looked out to see the porch soaked, the water dripping steadily from the gazebo roof, the botanicals, drinking their fill, and I smiled. I smiled like a did the first time my son smiled at me. I smiled in shear pleasure and joy. Spring is dipping her toes in the water. I know she will jump in, and it will be glorious.

Savor her, life is short, and winter will return for its revenge.