Dakota Beacon

This week I caught myself gazing lackadaisically out of the window with a cup of coffee in hand. Spring, the eventual conqueror, will soon break forth in all her glory. One of Robert Browning’s sonnets begins, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Forgive the personification, but that’s how much I love spring.

Life stirs in spring and the Great Outdoors takes on verve and vitality. Forgotten sounds of kids playing outside, lawn mowers mowing, and birds singing all signal the cycle of the seasons. All life displays a new zest for living.

Two and a half months ago I had sugar plums dancing in my head. As the world turns, visions of spring now do the dancing. Indeed! Spring, officially at least, is just around the corner.

My gaze turned from the drab scene outdoors to the calendar on the kitchen wall. Where does the time go? I note the fine print on March 12. Daylight saving time! Holy cow! Some genius with too much time on his hands figured we might “save energy” by starting daylight saving time earlier than ever. So, March 12 ushers in the change.

Then, that same week after daylight saving time commences, we celebrate my name’s sake -- St. Patrick’s Day. Now, there’s a date worth remembering.

On March 20, three days after St. Patrick’s Day, spring formally arrives declaring the season official. Hallelujah! Even so, some folks around the country may still be shoveling snow, but it will be with good spirit. Winter will soon be in the rearview mirror.

Two weeks hence, on April 2, comes Palm Sunday followed by Passover and Good Friday. Finally, Easter takes center stage on Sunday, April 9.

Don’t rest in reverie quite yet. Federal Donation Day, April 18, prods us awake with a start. Uncle Sam graciously gave us Holy Week to tidy up our “contribution.”

At the end of Donation week we are blessed with Earth Day. That’s the day when all who are so inclined worship the household goddess Mama Gaia.

Some regions can count on at least one more snowstorm to arrive in late April or early May just in time for the REAL Mother’s Day. After that we can kiss Ol’ Man Winter goodbye.

So much for perusing the calendar. But, who needs a calendar? Spring is coming and we don’t need an official designation to know it. We can feel it -- almost smell it. Even a casual observer can see Nature’s handwriting all around.

I’m guessing that within a week or two the Great Migration will commence. Song birds and water fowl will fly north if they haven’t started already. The Great Back Yard Bird Count (birdcount.org) is already in full swing.

Weeks of cold weather may yet be in store for some, but those weeks will be punctuated with days of warm sunshine. Melting snow initiates the spring runoff. First a drip, then a freeze, then a thaw, then a trickle. Before long rivulets and streams will fill dugouts and waterholes with snowmelt.

Winds of March and April harbor seeds of hope. Weather won’t really be winter; but it won’t be summer, either. Still, the breezes hold the promise of better things to come. That is, of course, unless the breezes speak a lie and carry with them a spring blizzard.

You know spring is on the way when farmers and ranchers reach for the obstetric chains. Calving time will be here and gone before you know it.

Then come the early rains in lieu of snow and with them the smell of fresh earth. Even before tractors begin their pilgrimage to the fields spring offers its wonderful aroma.

For town’s folk, spring means checking the lawn mower and raking winter’s debris. Spring waits for no one, and if you tarry you’ll need a grazing herd to clean up the early growth of grass.

Almost as an afterthought, spring will meld into summer. Another Robert Browning poem captures the essence of spring in the words of “Pippa’s Song.”

“The year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn;

Morning’s at seven; The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d;

The lark’s on the wing; The snail’s on the thorn;

God’s in His heaven -- All’s right with the world!”

We live by cycles, we die by cycles, as round and round we go. There’s a brighter day a-coming and thankfully so.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).