Welcoming the Healer Spring..

While taking a walk in the park, today morning I noticed, there was new life in the flower beds. The plants looked energized and the sprightly buds were stretching their necks proudly as if announcing their arrival and the arrival of the spring season.

Suddenly it struck me, the spring season was round the corner, more than a year had passed since the human activities on the whole planet had come to a halt due to the Pandemic. The survival mode has been on for the longest of time and the nature must have felt the disconnect with the humans. Now was the time to bring the humans back to life. Meanwhile the earth had not stopped moving, the sun had not stopped shining and the seasons continue to bring the welcome change to the otherwise monotonous life on this planet.

These flower beds remind me today that nothing can dampen the spirit of the nature and we can never completely escape the changing influences of the seasons. And why should we when we can use them to improve the quality of our lives?

Then I looked at people in the park, who had gathered there. There were children and old, boys and girls, men and women stopping near the flower beds and admiring the little painting of hope that the nature had painted for them.

Apparently, we humans have built structures to insulate ourselves from the seasons. We have established routines, as in, we get up and go to work much the same way day in, day out, seasons to seasons but we cannot contain our basic human spirit which yearns to interact with nature more closely. Each time an opportunity to do so comes, like just now, how happy the people are to see the flower beds and the buds that will bloom in some time spreading more colour and cheer. The more I see such scenes, more I am convinced that humans are made to stay close to nature and enjoy every facet of nature. When they do so they become one with that butterfly, with that squirrel and with that little sparrow. Afterall they are part of the chain. Isn’t it?

We humans love all the seasons, but spring undoubtedly is one of the most lovable of the four seasons a transitional stretch of colorful, festive days between winter and summer. A relief period from the extremities of winter and summer and extra hours of sun can be a major mood booster.

Since my childhood, I have likened spring to more flowers, more festivals, more birds, more butterflies, and more warmth of the sun. I would enjoy throwing away the winter clothes that used to come in the way of my free-wheeling activities like climbing trees and rolling on the ground etc during the winter season.

The ongoing Pandemic experience has made me look at the spring season in a new light. These prepared flower beds in the park are giving me hope. Today spring season has become the harbinger of hope.

Hope has been touted as "the best medicine". The patient's hopes are the physician's secret weapon. They are the hidden ingredients in any prescription. So, these flower beds and hovering butterflies have a healing potential for my fellow men. The sun rays now shining more brightly promise to bring in more Vitamin D to boost immunity in these disease prone times.

 The hope that is generated in the minds and hearts of human beings during the spring season is a very potent ally in sustaining health and recovering from illnesses. A healing merchant, that is what I would like to call the coming spring season.

A healing merchant? You ask. I say, yes, indeed. Because the birds chirping outside my window make my heart happy, the more sunlight in my room makes my soul happy, baby squirrel running up and down the tree soothes my heart, the green growth back on plants and trees bring cheer to the environment, vegetables and fruits carts have brighter colors and it brings in joy and artistry in my kitchen! The spring season provides a bridge from the barren darkness of winter to the bright warmth of summer. Why should I not call the season a healing merchant?

Especially the coming spring is definitely going to heal the wounded spirits of the humanity because a spring shows to humans what God can do with a drab and dirty world. I think the day the God created hope was probably the same day he created spring.