We have a saying here in the south, April Showers bring May flowers. To understand it is to live it. That transitional period in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and the Carolina’s that splits the temperate winter with the onslaught of Summer. That magical time we get to witness here in the beautiful southeastern United States, it’s beauty rivaled only by the majesty of Autumn. When everything is painted yellow, the early season blast of heat combined with the mass production of pollen almost chokes out the sun. The pollen is so thick at times, it produces clouds of greenish yellow haze across the southern skies. In between….. it rains, It rains in sheets the saying goes. I had a conversation with a friend just the other day about natural circumstance. There is not a place on this planet that doesn’t have its challenges. Wether it’s hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, flash floods, endless winter or endless sun and sand. We all have challenges, all of us (except San Diego). In the southeast U.S. it’s flash floods, tornadoes and huge storm systems. We often feel hurricanes in the south as far north as Chattanooga from Florida. It may be just rain and a little wind by the time it gets to us, but its effects can still be catastrophic from flooding. Not to mention the tornadoes that pop up from the massive continents weather systems colliding with the intruding hurricanes building strength out of the open sea. I find it kinda funny that one aspect of the oldest western countries in the world is that they are in places that seldom see coastal weather destruction i.e. England, France, Germany, Spain, Greece, Italy and Rome, Egypt, the Levant, hey, England only sees hurricanes when the Spanish Armada approaches. Proof, in my eyes at least, that God loves Protestants.
But I digress, the southeastern spring is something fairy tales as made of. At the end of April, usually around Easter we get that last little cold spell and then something magical happens. The pollen is gone, washed away by the deluge of spring rain and the plants focus their energy on growing. Reproductions task fulfilled until next spring. The explosion of growth is almost breathtaking as paintings of leaves fill the trees and foliage blanketing the world in that young fresh color of green. The new growth has a color of green unique to now. As the summer heat and humidity marches in the green gets darker and weathered by the sun. Now it’s light, bright and vibrant against the backdrop of the deep blue skies of spring. No hazy humidity to dull out the sky, it’s blues are brilliant and warm. The sun not yet amplified by the lens of summers glare. It’s beautiful, it’s brilliant, it’s magnificent, it’s spring in the southeast. I walk the “compound” as it is called, A track of land that many family members have homes on. Our own little village of sorts. I walk the grass blanketed stretches of yard and bask in the warm rays of the spring sun. I take some pictures of the landscape and I marvel in God’s creation. Sometimes you only need step outside to find an inspirational moment of beauty, I thought to myself as I fired up the grill.
