|
As far as I am
concerned, spring arrived last Wednesday night with the season’s first
thunderstorm that flashed lightning across the sky that was followed by
loud rumbles of thunder. For me, spring arrived exactly a week early.
I can almost
remember every major thunderstorm of my life. As young children, my
friends and I would sit at the back porch screen door, and count the
seconds between the flash of lightning and clap of thunder. During one
summer storm, we played a game where, following the flash, we would run
from our porch to the neighbor’s porch trying to beat the thunder. If it
rumbled before you got there, you were out.
I remember,
as a child, sitting on the front porch of my grandfather’s cabin in
Tyler
County,
watching the black clouds roll our way, and seeing for the first time
how sheets of rain will lay down a field of grass. When the rain hit the
cabin, it was only seconds before the rain barrel began to overflow.
I remember
the first spring storms for the last six years. It has become a right of
passage into spring for me to sit on our back porch and watch the light
show of spring’s first storms. I watched from the hammock, laying on an
air mattress, sitting in the rocking chair. I love the way the peeper
frogs cheep, cheep, cheep until the thunder rolls, then stop and start
again. The frogs add a third dimension to every flash of lightning:
flash, rumble, silence . . . then peep, peep, peep.
I love to
throw open the windows and doors for the first spring storm. I love the
way the wind sweeps the stale air from the house, and rustles the
drapes. I love how the spring storms wash away the grime of winter, and,
ultimately, the gray shades of the ending season.
It won’t be
long now before the crocus blooms are joined by daffodil blossoms, and
the budding trees will sprout leaves. Not long from now, and perhaps
even already, the birds will begin their spring mating songs.
There is no
way for those of us who live among the land to dismiss the arrival of
spring. The seasons affect us so strongly, and mandate so many of the
annual activities of our lives. Gardens have been tilled, and some
already have started planting. With the warm rains of the first spring
storm, soon everything will bloom and grow.
|