Let the annual season of renewal commence
Hope “springs” eternal this time of year
By Rick Alloway
When our oldest son was born, one of the baby gifts we received was a wall-hanging for the nursery with the quote:
“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”
I have since come to learn this is a slightly modified version of the actual line written by Carl Sandburg in 1948. The original is “a baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.”
Regardless of the version, I love the sense of hope, optimism and renewal that the verse brings. A sense that all can be right with the world.
I feel a similar sense of renewal about this time every year. The arrival of spring signals that we’ve come through another winter (admittedly, not as difficult as some) and with the change in season comes a change in attitude as well. A sense of freshness. Of revitalization. A new start.
Everything about a crisp spring morning sings to my senses. The breeze — that alternating mix of warm and cool air — against my face. The aromas of the earth opening to display shoots of the year’s first flowers, and the corresponding scent of spring blooms. The songs of birds happily and noisily engaged in real estate transactions and home-building. And the bushes and flowering trees budding out and then erupting in an array of pastel shades.
I will probably always be an autumn person at heart, but spring has made great gains for my affection in recent years.
Spring is also a metaphor for the sense that we’ve been allowed an opportunity to start again in our own lives — to evaluate and take a fresh swing at some things that didn’t go the way we had hoped last year. Maybe we got started and then ran out of time, resources or patience. Maybe we made a hash of it now and then. Spring is the “mulligan” of seasons — the embodiment of a “do over” with the optimism of things turning out better this year. Old projects may reemerge in different form. And new projects may unexpectedly come forth in full bloom.
So, excuse me if I can’t help but feel optimistic about this time of year — not just for the renewal of our lawns and gardens, but for renewed energy to make things better.
Maybe this will be the year I will get more done in the yard. Maybe I’ll find time and energy to start cleaning out the backroom in our basement.
But on a larger scale, maybe this will be a year when we can start to close the ideological gulf that has widened over the past decade. Perhaps we can start to listen more than we speak and honestly try to learn why folks whose opinions differ from ours feel as they do. Perhaps this spring we can conduct local political campaigns that focus on a candidate’s views and policies rather than attacking opponents with cherry-picked, misleading and distorted claims, often fed to us by well-funded organizations from outside our state. Maybe it will be the spring when we realize that drafting legislation that demeans and works against some of us diminishes all of us. Maybe it will be a spring when we can dial down the heated rhetoric that attacks hard-working public employees who are just trying to do their jobs. I hope it will be the spring when we can celebrate and welcome the vast array of cultures in our community that enrich our lives through broadening our exposure to the arts, literature and history. I pray it will be a spring when all of our city’s citizens feel welcomed and accepted.
History would suggest that many of my hopes and dreams for this year face uphill climbs. But my spirit remains undiminished. To believe otherwise would be to accept a world that is less than I believe it can be. All I can do is my own share. But watching the buds on our trees and bushes explode with colors and aromas tells me that hope springs eternal. And I would be ignoring their example to believe otherwise.
So, here’s to new chances. To getting things right. To refreshing your soul. And to enjoying the season of renewal. And, with apologies to Mr. Sandburg, I will amend his eloquent line to read:
“Spring is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”
Have a seat outside with your favorite beverage and welcome in all that spring brings. Cheers.
