ONE WEEK ago, the trees looked bare. A few days later, the pear trees were full of blooms and the maples and elms were feathering out their branches with young, pale green leaves. The pin oaks dropped the last of the dead leaves they had been hoarding. Thunderstorms rolled through, leaving bright blue sky behind.
Spring usually comes as something of a surprise, appearing after long months of cold and ice. But this year, the surprise was that the luxury of spring weather came at so low a cost in winter misery.
There had barely been time to get used to winter — that season arrived late and left early. People had no chance to develop cabin fever. Snow was on the ground only long enough to stoke Emporians’ annual anger about the city’s minimalist approach to clearing streets. The cold was terrible for a few days, but then temperatures moderated.
It was not so much a winter as a bad patch of late autumn.
Guilt-ridden folks who believe there is a causal connection between human frailty and weather will probably wonder if Emporia is worthy of this spring. Have we suffered enough?
But spring is not a fit time for philosophy or guilt. It is a time to feast the eye on beauty and inhale the gusts of oxygen billowing into the sky from the reviving trees and prairie.
Earned or not, the spring is here.
Enjoy it.