Spring...Anticipation...Awakening...Excitement...Hundreds of green hues...each more beautiful than the last.
The smell of every one of every kind of wildflower, the taste of mountain spring water, of dew dripping off the leaf of a mountain laurel in the early morning, the sparkle of the sun in mist-filled valleys.
The desire to experience all that life holds each year is seemingly more important than the last.
The sense for all of this surges up, until longing is stilled by a quiet voice whispering comfort and counseling patience.
Appalachian Mountain Days grow longer, the nights
softer. The sunsets glow with all of the rainbow colors in pretty pastels. The night sky
is lit up with Milky Way bands and stars of sapphire; the phases of the moon seem so
vivid.
There is a sweet awareness of Life like a time capsule cradled in Mother Earth’s arms.
A growing glow comes into the heart as we experience once again the urge for Re-Birth, New Life.
Each new Springtime, each new Day, each in this Appalachian Mountain part of the world is so beautifully definite.
Copyright © 1988, 1999 Barbara A. Smith and John G. Hipps. All rights reserved.
This essay was first published April 13, 1988 in the Free-Press Courier, Westfield, Pennsylvania.