“GIVING APPRECIATION TO THE SPRING SEASON FOR THE BEAUTY AND ENERGY IT BRINGS”
Hello, Spring! We welcome your season in our lives this time of year. We admire the growth of beauty you bring to our landscapes on Earth.
We thank you for bringing beauty to the landscapes on our earth—allowing the trees and grass to sprout green foliage. Wildflowers of every hue burst forth, blossoming and flooding fields, meadows, pastures, parks, and our very own yards. Wildflowers include daffodils, irises, tulips, bluebells, lilies, orchids, willows, forget-me-nots, crocuses, bleeding hearts, daisies, and primroses. These wildflowers you bring paint our lawns with pollen and nectar, a feast for buzzing bumblebees and iridescent butterflies and hummingbirds. Your season is not only a time to produce the beauty of growth in our landscapes but also a time that motivates us to be active through the mild temperatures you bring.
Your mild temperatures inspire us to be active and busy with various activities outdoors. The enjoyable or leisurely activities include flying kites, taking trips to parks, strolling or taking nature walks, scavenger hunting, having picnics, cruising on bicycles or motorcycles, playing baseball or softball, or running marathons. Our busy activities in your season are mowing our yards or planting flower or vegetable gardens. But when we are inside our homes, cars, and businesses, we have the energy and desire to raise the windows to transmit fresh air within. In addition to bringing attraction to our landscapes and vitality to us humans, your season awakens the animal kingdom.
You cause animals of many kinds, including deer, rabbits, foxes, bears, raccoons, hedgehogs, chipmunks, and badgers to come out from hibernation from the cold days of winter to embrace the mild temperatures of your season. While these animals enjoy the mildness of your season, they can cause problems to our properties. These animals dig burrows, holes, and dens in our yards, lawns, gardens, and fruit trees, causing damage within and eating the plants, vegetables, and fruits we plant. They even overturn our garbage cans, scattering debris in search of food. Additionally, some of them prey on our small pets or livestock.
However, your season inspires us to be mindful of protecting our landscape from the problems these animals cause. We can minimize these conflicts and appreciate the presence of these animals at the same time. This can be achieved by building fences around our homes, finding safe, humane deterrents, and even sharing some of our vegetables and fruits from our gardens and trees with them. Thus, we can be at peace with the animals and be fascinated by their presence. Even birds such as robins, cardinals, blue jays, swallows, sparrows, finches, and warblers rejoice in your season by singing melodies to bring glory to God, our Creator. We humans also welcome the melody of these songbirds to sing for us, lifting our spirits to your season.
In conclusion, we appreciate the beauty and energy your season brings. Thank you so much!—Kenneth Sullivan.