Happy Spring - A Good Substitute For Sad

Spring is here in Huntersville, North Carolina and along with the lengthening of days, leaves returning to the trees, and the return of the birds, comes the lightening of my mood. 

I’m back to walking outdoors again where I can actually enjoy the landscape as it puts on its springtime clothes.  Even if it means that my head gets full of pollen and my nose and eyes start to itch, I’ll take it.

Spring is a time of renewal.  People come out of hiding, tending to their lawns and their bodies.  Joggers run by, walkers walk by and children skip by.  It’s just a lovely time of year.

I woke up this morning to my cell phone indicating that my youngest granddaughter was asking for a Facetime chat.  I pushed the accept button and her cute little face appeared on the Ipad screen just next to my bed.  “Hi, Grandma”, she squeaked, just so very happy to see me.  “Hi Ami” I said – “How are you this morning?”  “I’m fine, just wanted to say good morning.  I didn’t tell her that it was way too early to call me—I was just happy to see her.  We chatted for a little while, then I wished her a happy day, blew her a kiss and disconnected the call. 

I popped out of bed and realized that my back didn’t hurt this morning.  Must be the yoga and Cardio Funk classes.  I’d been exercising more and my body felt the better for it.  I said a grateful thank you for that and jumped into the shower.  This was going to be a great day!

Later that day, Rashida and I decided to do something about our front lawn.  We’d bought a townhouse just so we wouldn’t have to worry about yards and lawn but as luck would have it, our homeowner’s dues were paying for nothing right now.  A call to the property managers found out that we had fired one set of landscapers and the new ones were not scheduled to start for a week.  Oh, the heck with it, we thought.  We’ll just replace that crazy looking grass seed grass with sod and put some flowers in.  The new landscapers can take care of our grass when they finally show up.

Off to Lowe’s we went and after a few hours of cleaning out the winter debris, we laid down a beautiful, lush, carpet of grass and planted some really pretty marigolds along the border.  While doing that we met 3 neighbors.  Mike and Sylvia who had moved here to be closer to their grandchildren and Jim and Bunny who lived right behind us.  Mike and Sylvia live two doors down and are from New York—Brooklyn to be exact.  Mike is a talker and told me that he’ll probably talk my ears off once we put our rocking chairs on the porch.  Jim gave us all kinds of restaurant recommendations and short cuts for the ridiculousness that has become our freeway—we even have a Facebook page entitled I-77 Ridiculousness, but that’s a post for a different day.

A little later in the day I was driving to the supermarket.  The soft springtime sun fell across my face, warming it and making me glow from the inside out.  I had the windows rolled down and just as I was getting ready to make a left turn, the voice in my head said “I’m happy, really happy.”  I smiled.  Happy is a great substitute for sad.

I knew it was going to be a great day!