Expecting

Written March 1, 2010

Yesterday I had books due at the public library, so I walked over in the afternoon. It had been sunny earlier but by then the clouds had moved in. Still, I think the pearly grey light almost as beautiful as sunlight sometimes, in an entirely different way of course.

The colors of the landscape are still dark and somber--deep green grass and dark brown earth. But the first cherry trees have started blooming; their fallen blossoms are the only snow I've seen this year. The magnolias are starting too. They're a nostalgic tree: one of our neighbors growing up had a magnolia tree which every year sprang into these perfect flowers, startling in the squalor of the rest of their yard. And there were several I passed regularly on my way too and from the Tube last year.

The world feels expectant these days. Not quite hopeful. Not yet. We still have March to get through. And yet the promise of spring is on its way and the first brave flowers are pushing their way out and into the world, despite setbacks like today. It was cold! But still the daffodils by the science building are still blooming and the forsythia has started too.