Spring is here :

March’s Marvels

Aditha Dissanayake

There is no sight so pleasing, no sight that literarily sends cold shivers down your spine than drops of dew tenderly embracing the tip of a leaf in the early hours of the morning. Now that the rains have ceased, now that spring is here, if you too get out of bed at exactly the moment the sun leaves his, you are bound to

bond with nature the way Rousseau admired “I feel an indescribable ecstasy and delirium in melting, as it were, into the system of being, in identifying myself with the whole of nature..”

This is the time of day when the sun, like you, is still sleepy, still lazy. His rays are young and tender as they gently pry open the petals of rose buds and make the pink cheeks of strawberries blush.

March is the month to be watchful. The month in which each day will present new signs of the approaching New Year.

Already, the zinnias and the marigolds have made their statements. So have the Hydrangea bloomed in full glory. All too soon the call of the Koha will begin to pierce the crisp air. The erabadu trees will adorn themselves with their fiery buds. And in the vegetable plots in Nuwara Eliya, cabbages, beetroots and carrots, like ladies at a gala dinner, will soon show off their colourful dresses.

Yet, even as you might find your day dreams soaring out of the office windows on a cloudless day like this, there are bound to be others who miss the gloomy skies, the cold weather and the chance to curl up in bed while the rain drops start to tap dance on the window panes, with a good book and a slab of chocolate in their hands. Who can blame them when the dry weather brings in it’s wake, runny noses, high fevers and the “maladies of the gods”.

Moreover, with ecological disasters creating havoc all over the world, from Anuradhapura to Badulla, from New Zealand to Japan, it is hard not to wonder if Nature’s wrath would soon or ever be appeased.

But hold it. Now is not the time for pessimism. Not when the frogs are calling from the flower beds, when the squirrels, like tight rope walkers in a circus, run across the electricity wires, when bees whisper sweet secrets to young flowers, when old leaves give way to the new on the mango trees proving Robert Frost’s words “nature’s first green is gold” to be true.

This is surely the time to switch off your mobile phones when you are out on the street walking to the bus halt or waiting in a traffic jam craning your neck to see what might be happening (or not happening) ahead of you. The phone glued to your ear is making you miss so much.

Let your eyes take in the touches of color from the Bougainvillea in a flower pot, the shower of jacaranda on the pavement, listen to the tweet tweet of a bird calling to her lover. Take note of these signs of hope and renewal, signs that will tempt your spirits to soar the skies.

Now, let’s have some truth as well. If you are to ask me what is the weather like here in Talawakelle, I must confess I have not had the time to notice.

I have been so busy writing. But if you really want to know, give me a minute, I will check and get back to you. Till then, like how the March Hare said (slicing a tea cup in half) “Have half a cup of tea.” Anything goes now that March is here.

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