Soap Box

Even though there is a bite in the air and a little frost on the grass some mornings, though the wind is still chilly and a fire in the fireplace still feels good in the evenings, though the trees are bare and the grass is brown, there are still signs that spring is on the way.

Branches on the trees are turning a orangey red color, the animals will soon lose their winter coats of long hair and brave little yellow daffodils are poking their heads up toward the sun and the occasional hapless bug flies by, lazy, lethargic and not quiet oriented yet but out and about never the less.

Spring is nothing less that God's yearly miracle of rebirth, one day the earth is in the throes of a dismal labor and then, seems almost over night, spring leaps forth full blown all green and white and pink, birds singing, fish jumping, this year's calves frolicking around in the pasture, new life buzzing and bawling and fussing and chirping, letting the world know that there are newly arrived citizens on the scene.

The sights, the sounds and the smells of spring all speak of new beginnings, a second chance, another go at it, in an unspoiled world where dreams come true and hope is eternal, a time for canceling ill feelings and bad memories and starting all over again with a clean slate and a brand new supply of determination.

Spring time can bring on a whole new attitude because it's hard to walk outside on a perfect day and not feel good about what you see going on around you, the promise the reprieve, the brief period of perfection in an imperfect world.

Poets of yore loved the Spring and memorialized it in verse. Alfred Lord Tennyson sums it up in the famous line from his poem Locksley Hall, "In Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love." Spring proposals, Spring weddings, Spring just seems to excite the romantic elements of the human spirit. New beginnings.

There's nothing to compare with that first bright, warm spring morning after a week of cold muddy days when winter hangs on like unwelcome company and it seems the sky has turned permanently gray and the trees resemble brittle zinc colored skeletons swaying mockingly in the north wind.

Just when we all get really winter weary, just about the time you think the sun is on permanent vacation and we feel like we can't load the wood box again or watch another gloomy weather report we start noticing the splashes of pink in the woods and realize the redbuds are starting to bloom and soon the dogwoods will join them and before long the whole marvelous thing just busts wide open like a ripe watermelon and all is right with the world again.

Then the grass turns green, the fish start biting, the colts buck around the pastures as the days get longer and hotter and then, we start just taking it for granted.

Then it's the end of summer and the leaves start to tinge, the evenings start chilling the grass turns brown, the leaves fall off the trees and we wonder what happened to that frivolous little season when the world was pristine and lovely and it was easy to imagine all kinds of wonderful things.

This year as the young blossoms sprout, as the light green tender leaves start budding, as the new born birds learn to fly, I want to slow down, to breathe deep, and to gather in the full measure of the awakening of nature, the rebirth of all things, while the whole world is wrapped in tenderness and beauty and thank my Creator for letting me live to see another Spring.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops and the peace of Jerusalem

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels​