The Real Thing

I heard them before I saw them. A choir of robins made their song from the quiet shelter of a big pine tree. I think their song told the pure joys of springtime, at least, that's what it spoke to me. Glad they are to be back in their homeland after a winter break down south, and not afraid to tell the world about it.

Heading back from my neighborhood walk, I saw two flashes of red streak by and head right for the pine tree. The two late arrivals joined in perfectly with the choir, taking a fashionable singsong break from courting and nest building.

It's been a very mild winter anyway, with very few winter storms and milder temperatures, making it seem spring-like since January. However, there is a new feeling stirring in the air that can't come close to spring-like. The real thing is here..., all God's children and all God's creatures said, "Rejoice!"

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!
~L.H. Bailey