40 Things Everyone But You Is Doing This Spring

1. Wearing the perfect denim jacket. Yes, they just stumbled upon it in the attic, they pulled it out of storage, because they have owned it for years – since the 90s! – but they haven’t thought about it until recently. And it still fits! And it’s so now! To think!

2. Picking daffodils.

3. Finding a load of daffodils growing in this big patch of grass and feeling a weightlessness in their chest as they pluck one from the earth and give it a little blow and the seeds fly off in perfect spiral patterns. Into the air! Into the gentle breeze! Yes!

4. Laughing as the little fluffy seeds land in their hair, on their nose. Drying the remaining wildflowers on the wall. Pinning them. Pressing them. Remembering them.

5. Knowing what each and every kind of flower is called.

6. Running outside. Going out for jog. Lacing up the old sneakers after a long winter on the treadmill, or one that was mostly sedentary. Feeling the twitch in their limbs as their muscles spring back to life. Feeling a burn and ache that subsides almost immediately, and is replaced by the impossible carnal pleasure of the runner’s high.

7. Remembering to stretch, before and after.

8. Wearing sunglasses that are on-trend and on sale. Keeping those sunglasses in a sunglasses case in an easily-accessible pocket in their perfectly organized purse or briefcase. Never dropping them anywhere. Never leaving them anywhere.

9. Never having to pause or struggle or rifle through bags and pockets for anything, because they are organized.

10. Spring Cleaning! Getting organized! Organizing the Tupperware cabinet. Organizing the spice rack. Organizing the closet. Organizing the attic. Getting rid of old things. Sorry, they are sooooo anal about it, but that’s the way it’s got to be. Keeping only things that they love and appreciate and use and feel joyful about. Thanking the things that they throw away.

11. Thank you, old bent spoon. Thank you, stained towels.

12. Holding onto nothing, and having everything else be in the exact right order at the exact right time.

13. Drinking iced coffee on the first iced-coffee-weather day. Getting a patio table at the brunch place on the first brunch-patio-table-weather-friendly day of the year.

14. Loving the sun.

15. Carrying a sweater with them at all times. Letting the sun kiss their arms in the day, being confident that when the night comes and the season’s chill sets in, they will have an extra layer to keep them snuggly. The sweater is not too thick or too thin. The sweater is not stretched out in the wrists. The sweater fits. The sweater matches. The sweater works.

16. Starting a little garden!

17. In the window-box! On the porch! In the back yard! Getting just the right seeds and soils and pots for the little garden! They don’t need much. Just a little pot and a little soil and a whole lot of love.

18. Smelling fresh herbs. Smelling of fresh herbs.

19. Going to the park. Lacing their fingers through the fingers of the one they love and walking through the park, lazily, on paths not-too-crowded. Cooing and aah-ing to each other about how, aren’t they so lucky? They have caught the park on that magical day — that impossible, perfect moment, when each tree seems to have reached peak bloom in synchrony. As if it was waiting for them to walk these paths, to see these sights.

20. Not taking any photos. Who needs technology on a day such as this?

21. Bringing out the good linens.

22. Scheduling summer travel well in advance.

23. Picnic! Spring picnic! Calling everyone up on a morning when everyone can come. Meeting up in the parking lot and hiking from there. One of them has a few bottles of wine, and one brought cheese and crackers. One has fruit and one has salad and one has sandwiches cut into triangles. Walking up the hill to the place with the best view.

24. Cheers!

25. Bringing out the linens!

26. Smelling the fresh linens!

27. Skirts and dresses! Dresses and shorts and skirts and dresses. Button-up shirts rolled up to just before the elbow.

28. Taking a walk in the woods. Putting on boots and walking through the woods just as the sun crests the horizon. Even, steady steps on the springy forest floor, amidst new moss, brushed with pearls of dew. What cleverness in the chorus of birdsong. What mystery!

29. Suddenly finding morels! Morels? Yes, morels, on the forest floor! Having no idea how you found them but you did! 

30. Knowing exactly what to do with the morels. Chopping them to be very small. Dropping them in a nice big bowl or pan situation with a bunch of complementary flavors. Maybe asparagus? Maybe fiddleheads? Bringing out the perfect wine.

31. Post-hike, post-morel, post-wine shoulder rubs in the sunroom by the garden.

32. New beginnings. Wiping the slate entirely clean, as clean as linens, and just feeling so fresh and clean in mind and soul.

33. Getting a puppy! A brand new baby puppy!

34. Come here boy, here! Come here, Chance!

35. Holding baby chicks and ducks at the petting zoo. Going to the petting zoo on a day that is very crowded and being the only ones allowed to hold the baby chicks. “He’s not usually fond of strangers,” says the old farmer in a gentle voice as a herd of children oohs and aahs around them. “But he’s taken a liking to you.”

36. Strawberries dusted with earth. Eating them fresh on the vine. Other people might worry about dirt on the berries, or pesticides, but oh, they’re not worried about that. The rain this morning washed them clean.

37. *gasps* The rain.

38. Watching the rain. Listening to the rain. Smelling the rain. Dancing in the rain. Embracing it and what it symbolizes. Not even needing an umbrella, not feeling miserable in wet jeans. They are feeling the rain to their bones and loving it to those same bones. It is all so simple, don’t you understand? They understand. They understand how simple is, the flowers and the morels, the puppy and the picnic and life and love. Love!

39. Making a birdhouse. Handing the birdhouse and the bird feeders. Saying “thank you” to the birds as they come back. Listening to the wisdom of their songs. Don’t you understand? They’re back. Everything is back.

40. New beginnings. They are going for it and they are perfect and they can do it because they are perfect and it is raining gently and the time is now.