SPRING SPIRIT

"Sparrow and Hydrangeas"
watercolor,
by Kay Smith

     There’s enthusiasm in the air around our riverside house these days since spring at long last has been let loose among us. My wife and I watched the birds last weekend winging their way across our yard from tree to tree, and it seemed to get us going with greater eagerness on our seasonal chores. While she worked with attentiveness among her steadily blossoming flowers, I swept and dusted in the house with unusual zeal. I seemed to truly care about keeping the house as clean as she always does, and I did my jobs as though they were entertaining tasks I couldn’t help but take pleasure in. While she sat on her beloved soil and set in bulbs and shoots, I shined up bookshelves and washed the shower walls. While she wheeled a wheelbarrow full of flowers around the yard, I found a strange satisfaction in seeing the carpets get even cleaner than they always are. I stopped occasionally to watch the birds going at great speed from tree to tree, and once I saw what seemed to be dozens of small birds dancing beside a bush. Nearby, Delycia was working with passion to prepare some soil, and several steps away some squirrels were springing with good spirit along the stones in a garden wall.