"Whoever has ears, let them hear."  Luke 8:8

I am a visual person. I take in the majority of information, process it, make sense of it, react to it, through t my sense of sight. My eyes have been searching the landscape for weeks, as have many others, for the visible sights of spring. Certainly the calendar declares it is spring and every day or two we will have a hint of warmth that tempts us to believe. Green has emerged from our garden but seems to have reached a plateau that could be called ‘not quite yet.’ I’ve been looking and looking(and with the chance of snow in the forecast for tomorrow) I am yet to be convinced.

But today I was driving past an area in our neighborhood where there are some small ponds. My windows were cracked ever so slightly and that’s when I heard them: peepers! The small frogs that signal spring is here. Their rhythmic chirping was beautiful music conjuring up wonderful memories of backyard play as we children were accompanied by their soundtrack. The sound of their singing said,"School will soon be over. Freedom is on the way!"

That’s when I realized that spring really is here….though the visual signs may seem slow to manifest themselves…the sounds of spring are all around. For weeks we have been hearing the call of the geese making their way through the sky way over our house. Honking their way home, they are. And then in the early mornings, the other birds….chickadees, cardinals, others…..are calling to one another, flitting and flirting with their come hither songs. And as I sit here I can hear, not the sound of forceful winds bringing snowflakes and ice, but the pitter-patter of rain outside the window carrying its green-making power in each tiny drop.

So instead of watching the pot of spring which doesn’t seem to want to boil, I am going to close my eyes and listen. Listen for all the ways in which spring is not only making its appearance but is already here. I will practice patience and develop this lesser used sense to hear the buds opening, the grass growing and the leaves popping out.

"It is the beginning of May and over near the statue of Moses, raising his staff to something none of us can see, hundreds of tulips have broken through the dark earth becoming every color they held inside and quietly they ignore each other in this chorus of oneness, bobbing gently, as children race up to their splashes of yellow and red, expecting the colors to sing, and maybe they do in a song only children can hear………" Mark Nepo, from ‘Opening Without Words’

I hope you hear some spring sounds this weekend……enjoy!