Rise Up!

Rise Up, it’s May!
by Rob English

After several years of moderate winters in our area, Mother nature dealt us a somewhat harsh one these past months, but now it’s May! Somehow the two feet of snow and ice on our lawns have turned to green grass and dandelions. The air is warm, the birds are chirping, leaves are being born, bees are again buzzing and an occasional fly is climbing up and down our windows. A noisy bluejay has returned from wherever he spent the winter and he calls to me every morning so that I’ll toss him a peanut out of my bedroom window, and across town a red winged blackbird calls for his peanut when I arrive at work.

Technically, we can say that the Earth has tilted it’s face toward the sun, bringing Spring to our northern latitudes. If you prefer poetry, we can open the King James Bible to its beautiful Song of Solomon and savor the passage wherein the prince calls upon his fiancée to join him in celebrating the arrival of this awesome season:

Rise up, my love
My fair one
And come away!
For lo, the winter has passed
The rains are over and gone
The flowers appear on the earth
The time for singing has come
The fig tree puts forth its green figs
And the vine with the tender grapes
Gives a good smell.
Rise up, my love,
My fair one,
And come away!

That’s a better way to express it, no?

Last summer an admirer gifted me some gardening tools; I’m thinking of unwrapping them and putting them to use (no promises). I WILL leave the dandelions for the bees – they are the bees’ first food after winter. I will exercise again (pickle ball!), and if a frustrated fly on my window can’t get out into the sunshine because it hasn’t evolved to understand glass, I’ll catch it in a cup and free it myself. Yes! Of course!

Rise up my friend, my neighbor, and celebrate Spring with me!

Photos of a Bluejay by Andrew Patrick, of flowers with a message “Hello Spring” by Polina and of a fly on a green leaf by M de Goede from pexels.com

Rob English is a member of People for Animal Rights, a grassroots organization in Central New York.

Contact People for Animal Rights
PO Box # 401,
Cleveland, NY 13042
peopleforanimalrightsofcny@gmail.com
https://parcny.org/