Nature vs. Lurchers

Feelin' the Yearn
to Spurn Bern
Dump Trump
Bruise Cruz
Forgo Marco
and Pillory Hillary

Move over, politicos.  When it comes to real progress, Nature trumps you every single time.

Granted,  air temperature is tempestuous--teasing "spring" one day only to frost our windows the next.  But the sun?  Well, the sun never lies.  And its recent propensity to get out of bed earlier and earlier only seals the deal for me that spring really is just around the corner.

But the sun isn't the only one singing songs of hope.  Consider four signs collected in the past 18 hours:

1. BLOOMING CROCUSES
You read right.  A part of my neighbors' yard is awash in purple and green, as crocuses have pushed their way through the leaves to make their splashy statement.  And our own daffodils, awash in the tropical winds of our dryer vent, aren't far behind.

2.  BUDDING MAPLES
It's true, I suppose, that some trees, like some people, are early bloomers, but I've seen too many buds this week to believe that every tree I've encountered is an overeager early bloomer.  From the soft buds of my neighbor's magnolias to the berry-like bursts of this maple, spring has just about sprung.

3.  PROLIFIC PINE CONES
Not 20 yards from the maple sits a string of very happy pines, their top quarters heavy laden with new pine cones--proof that the long drink of fall extended well into the winter.

4.  COTTONWOOD STARS
Yesterday's walk along a prairie corridor west of Lincoln brought me, once again, into contact with an immense cottonwood.  Scouring the ground around its massive trunk, my friend Shannon and I snapped dried twigs to look for these tiny stars, replacements for their fallen brethren, loosed from the skies.


I did one more thing this week that helped fill me with the lightness of spring.  I read an article in Atlantic Magazine, titled "How America Is Putting Itself Back Together."  In it, the authors contend that our communities are much more communal than the aforementioned politicians would like us to believe.  Like the crocus' delicate green tendrils breaking through winter's hard, cracked earth, there are signs everywhere that we are waking up and becoming beautiful again.