Spring’s Quiet Shades of Gray

I took a  few walks today on the first day of Spring. The sun stayed comfortably behind the clouds most of the day peeking out only for a few moments and then jumping back as if it were playing its own game of hide and seek. As if it were happy with waiting.

All around a world of gray.  The Mississippi River, the sky, the sidewalk that I walked on, all gray.

Remnants of winter: the sand  scratching against my shoes as I walk across the beaten streets. The dead brittle wreaths on a neighbor’s door, a snowman flag knocked to the ground.

Too early for the colors of daffodils or tulips along my path. I saw a few gardeners  raking out the old leaves and brush in their yards.   I caught the small details of a bud here and there on trees and a bird’s nest that will soon have eggs. Nothing spectacular yet. But maybe I can sense a soft humming, an overture of what is to come. A promise.  Spring comes as it will, in its own time.  Preparing like a horse at a starting gate before a race. You can’t hold it back for very long.

Ready, set,  GO!