what a difference a day makes…
by bam
there she is, my lung-filling, nose-tickling, olfactory factory. just gearin’ up, she is. those high notes and low notes and dancin’-in-the-middle notes, just starting to chug out her pink-throated chimneys.
she is the thing i’ve been waiting for, tracking like a kook, or some sort of nosey neighbor who can’t keep my eyeballs from peeking over the fence, keeping tabs on all the kitchen drama i can decipher through the flimsy next-door curtains.
we’ve been watching, you and i, and anyone else who tunes in. to this channel called the spring, a serial that won’t stop, despite the weather insults and assorted curveballs.
have you ever been drunk on a smell? inebriated by a perfume? is there some scent somewhere that takes you back, as mere lick of madeleine carried proust?
all i know is for the days when she’s in bloom, when she puts forth like only maybe marilyn monroe has ever done, well, watch out. steer clear. or else you’ll not get one thing done.
you’ll shimmy up beside her. you’ll pretend you’re doing asthma exercises. you’ll breathe so deep, you might be on the verge of bursting alveoli, those little sacs inside your lungs that sometimes are subjected to nasty chemical equations.
just think: those wee balloons devote their days and nights to taking in your world’s unpleasantries–gas burners leaking, cars with mufflers long past time for cleaning, the broccoli burned night after night by some distracted cook.
have those airy soldiers not earned the right, the privilege, the pure honor to spend these sweet few days aswirl in redolence?
my unfurling spice viburnum is not yet in deep full-throttle, so to tell you what you’re missing, i will have to go here on the dregs of my ol’ memory. let’s see, i’d describe her notes as part bubble-bath, part deep-woods, part lady-in-a-crowd-who-makes-you-turn-your-head-and-sniff.
got that?
oh, hmm. darn.
well, then, i’ll try again: part-strawberry-jam-on-buttered-toast, part lily-of-the-valley, part south-seas-island. with, oh yes, a dash of nutmeg.
oh, dang, perhaps i’ll simply have to airmail a sprig for every one of you.
or, maybe, by the time she’s exuberantly in her glory, i’ll have figured out how to record her smell, and send it out from these here pages. (note to technical committee: get on it.)
till then, breathe deeply. you just might catch a whiff. and stay tuned. this live broadcast of my burnin’ bush will not pause for weekends. we’ll be back to bring the story as it unfolds.
and, by the way, is it not enchanting, edifying, and plain old smashing, the difference that a day makes?
oh, that we could always measure progress with such sweep-me-off-my-feet, stark distinctions day-by-day.
again, it might well be the wisdom of the spring to remind us that even when it can’t be marked, or clocked, or framed in ever-changing pictures, there is always the possibility that one day might be so different from the next.
so wholly resurrecting.
what lessons does the spring bring you? and can you smell my sweet viburnum yet?
After a difficult fall and winter, the hope of spring brings with it a breath of new life. I have the same viburnum in bloom right below my bedroom window. A heavenly scent beyond mere words…If we could only remember there is always new life beyond the darkness of some of our days…perseverance is the key!
Hmmm…what lessons does the spring bring you? Glory awaits just around the corner…push ahead and don’t look back. 🙂
she looks a like a beauty and i wish i could sniff the screen right now. i’ve noticed a few brazen lilacs bursting out here and there in the city. their smell means real spring to me. my sweetie will rise early, very early, every may and sneak out with kitchen shears to clip the big branches of purple blossoms that lean over the old fences and generously offer themselves to anyone passing thru the public alleys of our neighborhood. he will come home with as many as his arms can carry, but the shrubs will show no signs of severance when he’s done. our home will be scented sweetly of lilacs for a week, reminding us that long winter is over and fleeting spring will soon be past.
Love staring at your photo of Miss Verbenum. Stunning. Heavenly.
You bring so much to the table–we’re so blessed. Everyone I know needs to pull up a chair.
What a difference a day makes……….twenty-four little hours…………there’ll be sunshine and flowers………..where there used to be rain…………………Ahhhh………..how true, how true………I’ve been comptemplating the last few blogs for a while hoping i could find a way to convey what i mean……….. it seems to me that all of this spring’ing’…this bursting forth…..this renewal, rebirth……..requires quite a bit of effort……what is the toll taken, fare paid, for these things of nature to put forth these gorgeous displays?……’all’ of their strength is used to begin again, restart the cycle of life…….if they had voices i can only imagine how ‘wobbly’ they must feel at the heart, at the core, at the root ………anyone blessed to have given birth can surely relate to just how much effort it actually takes both emotionally and physically………no wonder we mere mortals feel ‘wobbly’ at this time of year……yes, spring is BEAUTIFUL…..but it certainly doesn’t come without a cost………it doesn’t happen without an incredible amount of effort…..on the part of bushes, trees, earth, sky and we humans too……… I think we need to give ourselves a little slack…….. while we ‘want’ to be able to put on our new springy, showy selves it DOES deplete us, uses up our ‘stores’……and if we haven’t had the chance, taken the time, rested, in preparation for this new season, it can be overwhelming, depleting, draining……..even while every bone in our body, every ounce of our spirit, ‘wants’ to be all shiny and flowery and perfumed and new like the natural beauty around us…..we feel like we ought to be just as ‘blossoming’ as the shrub outside the window and wonder why we aren’t …….. i agree with bam when she says she feels she is an autumn girl, i believe i am too……….. it’s easier, more restful…. in my mind that is the time of renewal, when it all goes back in….. the job, show, display is done and it is time to rest……….. spring is beautiful, but it takes an effort of great magnitude, for we humans just as in nature,………sometimes more than we’ve got……….we do bounce back, thank God, but i think we need to remember to take the ‘one day at a time’ tack…….. after all , what a difference a day makes………..Can’t wait for tomorrow…………..
dearest vam, i love that thinking there. i read your thoughts early this morn, and have been dashing all day. but all day gave it thought–at stop lights, walking through the noisy downtown streets. so much wisdom there. and yet i hadn’t ever connected the exhaustedness of birth and birthing big ideas to the energy exerted by earth in spring. so many i know seem to find this season at once exhilarating and draining. and you put it quite so well. i remember not long after birthing my firstborn that shaking thing started to happen, so common in the delivery room, when every muscle screams for sustenance and calm. it makes me wonder, do we give back to earth all she gives to us? i am thinking of that question all day today……..thank you much for laying those fine thoughts here on this table. it is something we could muse here for the rest of holy spring…..blessings.