Spring Forward, Don't Fall Back

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Spring is in the air here in the River City. Although I fancy myself a fall maiden, something about the springtime gives way to so many mixed emotions. I feel hopeful, elated, sentimental, a bit empty and depressed sometimes, excited, yet sad. On one hand, as the weather evens out to warmer temperatures (depending on rain), I get more opportunities for motorcycle fun. However, I still pine for the fall chill and pine a bit for the holidays past (memories-sigh). Maybe it's a perfect time to recall some of my warmest memories of the season. Flow with me as I wax poetic, won't you?

Growing up, Easter was a big part of spring and a time when we still got excited for that holiday, since we would gather as a family (dinner like Thanksgiving and Christmas), and of course get our Easter Baskets and usually we looked forward to a new Easter dress (sometimes shoes and a purse to match). So there was a special feeling for the time of year and everything it meant to us as a family. For us, as kids, there was a general "harummph" feeling of disgruntlement at the very thought that we were being dragged to church, since our little sweet-toothed minds were rather focused on digging into our candy and getting on with the Easter egg hunt we would soon have in Mom's front yard.

One year in particular sticks out in memory. It just so happened that not all of the eggs were found, and we eventually ran across the unfortunate 'forgotten' treasures some months later, or maybe even the next Easter, when they had turned into 'Stink Bombs' more or less. That was not pleasant, I must say, though extremely funny in retrospect.

Many of the memories I have of springtime include my Mother's deep love of gardening and the outdoors, as well as Dad's always busy 'Working Man" nature. The grass cutting, the planting of so many flowers and vegetables in the gardens, the magical southern mud that comes with so many spring rains, In fact, I remember vividly after one such 'good rain', the yard already holding on to a bit of moisture, and our well had backed up so there was extra water soaking an area around a fixture my Mom had sitting out for use as a 'bird bath'. My Dad was working feverishly to finish up his yard work as he came upon this spot with the mighty intent to 'Weed Eat' around it so as to clean up the tall grass and weeds that build up all-too-quickly after these mystical southern rains. As he rounded the edge, his weed eater hit a pile of dog poo, unfortunately spattering him from head to toe in the unholy excrement. No, he was not a happy camper.

It was moments like those, looking back, that I dearly wish I had a video camera prepped and ready for every single antic or incident he got himself into (whether or not he found them funny, I'd love to be able to revisit them).

A word about bugs... ahh yes. Insects, of course were and still are my least favorite sign of the season. Since we don't get nearly enough winter weather here in the Mid-South, we are simply overrun with wasps, ticks, fleas, flies and mosquitoes (just to name a few).

Oh and crickets... cue the crickets...


Aside from all the good memories, I have to take a moment to pause. For some reason I have been struck with the blues as the afternoon has worn on and I have been in thought trying to add to this post. You see, my brain is always running 90 to nothing, and it doesn't take much to trigger a whole messy episode of me wallowing in my sorrows over wishing I could go back to 'when life was good, and we were all happy'.

Well if you think about it, the times that you remember as being so amazing and trouble-free are only so in retrospect. If you were to be truly honest with yourself, at those particular moments we were all worrying or upset about something, thinking we were unhappy over some event. They were better days to us now because we're remembering back, and perhaps missing the people, the places or the times we shared at that point in time, but the "us" of the moment was just as dissatisfied over circumstances and feeling like it wasn't going our way. Now we can look at that a couple different ways. On one hand, it is just life, and we're always dissatisfied looking over thinking the grass is greener in another yard. We can also take that to mean, things are always good, it's just up to US to perceive it that way.  Then we could take it (joking voice) that 5 or 10 years down the road THESE days will look to us like "The good ol' days" Yikes! ha-ha... Oh I digress. Just trying to make it a little humorous. Hey, I can say that because I've been through a helluva lot, and I refuse to give up. Keep going!!  All of our life, even the serious or painful parts should be coated with just a bit of humor anyway. There's no good reason and no benefit to making it all morose and serious, is there? The only way to survive any of it with a grain of sanity is to find the funny hidden between all the dark lines. That's how I feel about it. I'm not saying I've got it down to an exact science, hey nobody's perfect. We're all here to learn, to grow, and to realize that nothing here is permanent, it's all rented so enjoy it, take care of it and get the best experience you can out of it all. It is all about the ride, the journey, and obviously the thrills that make the memories (otherwise what would I write about)? Let's keep growing and learning together. If you're reading this and you're going through a hard time, take this as your sign. I'm here to tell you that your presence here is important, you can't give up, you can't check out early... you can, but I'm not letting you. Come on, let's rock this bitch!!!

“Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway”  ~Sydney J. Harris