Yesterday, while out and about, I spotted some beautiful ferns and plants outside a produce place. I felt myself drawn to their parking lot…..I couldn’t help it; I simply had to pull in there and touch them!
My car, who I named Snow White (the grandkids are the dwarfs, but thank goodness there’s not seven of them…yet) just swerved itself over there, and I walked slowly around, just touching the plants.
My face would not stop smiling.
Like all of you, I have tired of inclement weather. I detest the mud I have to clean off the floors and the wet clothing I have to toss in the washer because someone simply went to retrieve the damp bills and magazines from the mailbox.
I detest my dreary hair, hanging limp and sticking to my head. (That’s a description which came from my Momma…..”You need to do something with your hair, it’s sticking to your head!”)
I overheard a conversation between the owner of the produce place and a customer. She said, “These plants took my breath away, and I had to come in and just look at them.”
Oh, how I can relate! I felt like hugging her, but she had three kids with her, and I was afraid they would come home with me……
Driving around, I spotted quite a few buttercups and daffodils. The paper whites will come to bloom later, but not much later. Poke salad will be poking its head out of the ground soon, and I am sure I will get in trouble (again) for trespassing to pick it. I cant wait to scramble some eggs into a skillet of poke and eat it with hot cornbread and a green onion!! As my little niece would say, “That’s so good, I bet it’s the food Jesus eats!”
Now, I hear parents discussing baseball and softball for their kids, and how many long, dreary hours they will have to spend at the field. I look at it like this….these kids are learning and improving their social skills, while getting physically fit. They are learning to accept successes and defeats in a dignified way.
They are learning, also, that their parents are willing to spend lots of time being involved in their little lives…..so, let’s just get this ballgame thing rolling and stop dreading it!
I have my fishing poles all cleaned and ready, waiting outside the kitchen door. They will be put to good use, and soon. I have already spotted lots of worms under rocks and pots and the driftwood I can’t help but keep. I even talked to them….I said, “It won’t be long till you will help me catch a fish, little wormy worm.” Yes, I am still, inside, just a child!
I go outside each morning, wearing my furry house coat, carrying my coffee, stumbling around half asleep, just to check out what is going to have to be done here at Wit’s End, to get the yard back in shape.
I think of my Momma, who I am swiftly becoming. I know how she felt about being outside, watching things grow and bloom. When she got older, she would say to me, “Sheila, go over there and break off the limb that’s sticking out on that bush. It makes the bush look sideways.” ….or, “Sheila, I see a big weed over there in the buttercups, and it’s making my thrift look tacky. Go over there and pull that ugly thing out of that bed!”
Spring always brings my Momma to mind. A lot. If your Momma is in heaven with mine, they probably know this, and I bet ten dollars it makes them smile to see us down here, 
becoming them, and doing the things they taught us to do.
Anyway, let us be happy as pigs in slop for the springtime we all know is just around the corner!
And, let’s make the most of it when it gets here. I am already pulling out and examining tents, cleaning the boat, collecting marshmallow roasting sticks, checking to see if I have enough potting soil, all those things that make me, and made my Momma, happy, happy, happy!!!!
