The Hope of Spring

“The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.”  Henry Van Dyke

Today is the Vernal Equinox, the official start of Spring 2015.  Where I live in California, the weather has been great lately—the 70s and 80s as the highs—and blossoms are bursting forth across the city.  I realize other parts of the country might be colder and gloomier, but it is still the start of spring.  So take heart!  Embrace the change, the hope, promise and expectation of spring.  As Margaret Elizabeth Sangster said, “Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom.”

When I ran errands the other day, I captured some of the blossoms that were evident across the city.  Even brought a couple inside to brighten the living room.  What signs of spring are you seeing in your neighborhood?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

SOME QUOTES ABOUT SPRING, HOPE & FLOWERS

“Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.”  Bertrand Russell

“It’s spring fever. . . . You don’t quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”  Mark Twain

“Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways.  The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.”  Sarah Ban Breathnach

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’”  Robin Williams

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”  Zen Proverb

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”  Anne Bradstreet

“O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?”  Percy Bysshe Shelley

“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”  Bern Williams

“Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.”  Doug Larson

“Spring has returned.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems.”  Rainer Marie Rilke

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt,”  Margaret Atwood

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”  Hal Borland

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!”  Sitting Bull

“No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.”  Sheryl Crow

“Poor, dear, silly Spring, preparing her annual surprise!”  Wallace Stevens

“Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.”  Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

“I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.”  Ruth Stout

“The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.”  Harriet Ann Jacobs

“An optimist is the human personification of spring.”  Susan J. Bissonette

“Spring is when life’s alive in everything.”  Christina Rossetti

“The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size.”  Gertrude S. Wister

“Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.”  Henry Beecher

“Earth laughs in flowers.”  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them.”  Chinese Proverb

Anticipation

an-tic-i-pa-tion, noun.

• a feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen
• the act of preparing for something

Anticipation is such a great word, great feeling.  Better than hope because it is more immediate, more likely to really bring about action.  Better than a surprise, but it is not so unexpected.  Anticipation says you are on the threshold of something you are longing for.

Now, that’s pretty good.

I’m anticipating a good week, month, summer, year!  How about you?  What are you looking forward to with excitement and expectation?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

QUOTES ABOUT ANTICIPATION

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”   Alfred Hitchcock

“Why, for example, do the great writers use anticipation instead of surprise?  Because surprise is merely an instrument of the unusual, whereas anticipation of a consequence enlarges our understanding of what is happening.”  Roger Rosenblatt

“But is we learn to think if it as anticipation, as learning, as growing, if we think of the time we spend waiting for the big things of life as an opportunity instead of a passing of time, what wonderful horizons open out!”  Anna Neagle

“Conscience is most mean, is but the anticipation of the opinions of others.”   Jeremy Taylor

“Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change; the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.”  Samuel Johnson

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”   Norman Cousins

“People don’t realize that now is all there ever is: there is no past or future except as memory or anticipation in your mind.”  Eckhart Tolle

“Expecting is the greatest impediment to living.  In anticipating of tomorrow, it loses today.”  Seneca

“Most travel is the best of all in the anticipation of the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.”  Regina Nadelson

“An intense anticipation itself transforms possibility into reality; our desires being often but precursors of the things which we are capable of performing.”  Samuel Smiles

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.”   A. A. Milne

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.”   Dr. Seuss

“Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”   Khaled Hosseini

“Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work’s important, family’s important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You’re cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what’s coming.”   Nicholas Sparks

“The pleasure isn’t in doing the thing, the pleasure is in planning it.”   John Green“The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting”   Andy Warhol