By Mary Tobia

Spring is finally here.

We made it through the long, dreary, COVID-wary, winter.

The weather has warmed, daffodils and forsythia bushes are blooming and the COVID-19 fighting vaccines have arrived.

It’s time to celebrate. Rejoice in the awaking of the flowers, trees and green grass. Springtime speaks to my soul. The earth seemed to welcome this new season like no other. The other three seasons seem to just slide in, but spring makes us all recognize it. The air smells fresh and the birds sing their songs so beautifully. This is my 70th spring here on earth, and I welcome this time of year more lovingly with each passing year.

I always tell my husband that on a warm sunny spring afternoon I can smell the grass grow. He just shrugs it off and attributes it to my being raised in rural South Dakota where sometimes grass is all you can see for miles.

Spring on the farm always meant baby lambs. April was the month all the ewes would be giving birth. We were basically a dairy farm, but my dad did raise a small heard of sheep. Each year at least one mother sheep would give birth to twins. Sometimes both would be strong and healthy but occasionally one twin would need some special care for a few days to gain its health.

This little lamb would get a special cardboard box enclosure in the corner of our warm kitchen. For a few days it would sleep, be kept warm and drink special milk supplement until it was ready to rejoin its mother in the yard. I remember well the time I thought I was being helpful. I carried a small lamb from its corner cove and put it in my bed, wanting to keep it warm by sleeping with it. All went well at first until about an hour later when the lamb regained its strength, panicked and started bleating. It jumped off the bed and started to run around the house. This of course got my parents’ attention, which in return got me a stern warning not to take the lamb out of its cardboard makeshift home.

I recently read that the process of re-creation occurs during the springtime. We wake up, we are more alert, our hearts are more open. It is a time of new beginnings; everything is fresh and clean.

This spring is special. It is a new beginning for the earth and for us. We have been living with the COVID-19 virus for over a year. Doctors know better now how to treat the virus; vaccines are out to help protect us from COVID-19; and masking, sanitizing, and distancing has become routine for all of us for now.

I believe we are starting to come together again. People are holding doors open for others, people are making eye contact and greeting each other. Our kids are back in the classrooms. As spring does a reawakening to the earth, people are starting to feel a little safer and reawakening from this pandemic.

Experience this spring as if it is the first time you ever experienced it. Like the first time you saw a flower, a tree growing, bird chirping or hear children playing outside.

When you see the sun peek out from behind a cloud, feel the rays and let it warm your soul and brighten your spirit.

Embrace this new spring and welcome the power and beauty of new beginnings.