Hello, World. It's Been Awhile.

One day.

One wide-open, crystal-clear Spring day.

One day and, suddenly, I'm right with God again.

Sure, I still woke long before 5 a.m., but I was not nudged from bed by thoughts of yearbook deadlines or sack lunches. Even the same old time feels new again when the day is all yours.

I took my time heading downstairs, stretching out in bed and getting lost in "Moon Over Manifest," a mighty fine book that's taken me to other times and places.

Just like today.

I love my family dearly, but the chance to spend a weekday just with Mark, a man who makes his money on the weekends, is a chance I will always take. A mild crosswords war, some time spent with the "Victory Garden", stretching out on the floor alongside Hobbes, swimming in the sunlight that pours through our front door.

We lollygag about, winding our way through Woods Park, our time alone punctuated by meandering strings of passing geese, frustrated flickers flitting from tree to tree, the empty pool that I can almost imagine filled up again, and Hobbes off his leash exploring invisible scents I wish never to know.

A free day turns ordinary things into extravagant gifts, seen with fresh and appreciative eyes. A half dozen young squirrels have been playing tag in our backyard all day long, fat with their first winter and anxious to say they've made it through to the other side. Choirs of chickadees warm up their chit-chit-chitting voices in the warmth of this spring day.

It is as though we all got the memo--the birds, the dog, the garden, the chickens down the block--and none of us can quite believe it, happily pinching each other and committing our hearts and tongues to the words of Spring.

Like my car, now dripping in the driveway, its winter skin slinking its soapy way down the sidewalk, I have come clean on this, a perfect and free Spring day.