The Sassy Sandpiper welcomes the renewal of spring a couple of weeks early.

By M.R. WILSON, Columnist, TB Reporter

I know! Spring doesn’t officially commence until March 20, the vernal equinox, which occurs at 5:58 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time. This year I’m feeling the rejuvenating pulse a bit early.

Maybe it was the subtle change in the play of light. Perhaps the surprise of a monarch butterfly chrysalis clinging to a dried out basil stalk; then a week later catching a photo of that winged jewel (amber and obsidian) just before it soared up onto a palm frond.

Maybe it’s the nesting ospreys throughout Pinellas County or the bobbing mallard ducklings at Raymond H. Neri Community Park; the migrating robins, laughing in the treetops. (I wish they could stay.)

Could be I’m feeling like a crocus pushing up through the snow because lately, good things are happening after a long season of retreat and recovery, aka autumn and winter.

Exercise and yoga at the YMCA-Lealman Exchange have bolstered my mood and energy, as well as provided the venue for new and blossoming friendships. During my last visit, I was pleased to see that the Broach School is setting up fresh quarters in the Exchange, also. The original St. Petersburg campus at 46^th Avenue N and 43^rd Street was demolished this past fall, making way for a housing development.

The weather is spring-like enough. Yesterday’s downfall brought 2.5 inches of rain; more is forecast. The “yarden” (not organized enough to call a garden) is greening up and over-growing. The pipe vines, host to swallowtail butterfly caterpillars, outpace the jasmine. I expect lots of weirdly beautiful flowers, cream and crimson—and deadly—as these are carnivorous “pitcher plants,” offering enticing nectar at one end, a drowning pool at the other.

I’m thinking about new projects, maybe even Spring Cleaning. Or not. I thought about and acquired new glasses. I gave myself a new haircut. It looks like I hacked it off with a chain saw. Will seek professional remedy soon. Or not

Put simply, I feel the lift of renewal. It’s coming and yet it is happening now. Spring is the season for such things; an Earth Ecstatic perks up her ears, sniffs the air, blinks into the lengthening day. Something stirs inside. She stretches—physically, emotionally and spiritually. She ventures from her mountain cave. A long-lost dream resurfaces: One day she will dance en pointe.

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. You don’t have to be a Methodist or have any religious affiliation at all to appreciate the poem “Dazzling” by Jan Richardson. It’s from her little volume, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.

“…This blessing/ is made for coming down/ the mountain. This blessing/ wants to be in motion,/ to travel with you…/ until the moment comes…/ when it will reveal/ everything it knows,/ when it will shine forth/ with all it has seen,/ when it will dazzle with the unforgettable light/ you have carried/ all this way.”

I am coming down the mountain, sassier than ever.

M.R. Wilson | Sassy Sandpiper | Spring | Tampabay News

#MR.Wilson #SassySandpiper #Spring #TampabayNews