Spring Promises

Today, the taste of spring was in the air. It was a balmy 66 degrees, sunny, with a slight breeze. We spent a good part of playgroup outside, the kids running across the damp grass, the babies content to sit in their mothers arms, and all the moms happy for an unexpected, but welcome break from winter cabin fever. After everyone left, and the kids were down for their afternoon nap, I undertook a chore that I had neglected in the fall. A dusty box that had been sitting in the corner of our dining room held about 70 bulbs- crocuses, tulips, and irises. I had meant to get them planted in November, but the weather turned cold early this year, and I was unable to do it. I had almost resigned myself to not planting them, but then this break in the weather came. Sunday I went out to try to plant them since the top layer seemed soft, but the ground was still frozen about an inch down. But today I thought maybe... maybe there had been a long enough thaw...maybe I could dig the required 3 or 4 inches to bury the bulbs. So I knelt in the damp soil and plunged my spade into the earth, and found that I was able to dig deeply enough. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, both experiencing the foretaste of spring in the air, as well as the anticipation of the joy these flowers would bring me in a few months. I love how planting bulbs are a special kind of promise. In placing these brown little lumps into the earth, I am trusting in the future, that the earth will continue its rotation, and that spring will come again, in glorious colors of pink, red, purple, blue and yellow.