This morning I woke to the sweet illusion of spring. A fragile white light upon my floor (after I slide our kitchen doors open). A grogginess that made me linger in bed, simply happy. These alone were enough to evoke in spirit and thought Coleridge, and his lines, "And winter slumbering in the open air, / Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring !" Or Mole who was in such an exasperation of white-washing and anticipation of spring that it required Mr. Grahame to make up several new words.
But I say illusion for a good reason. In Taiwan there is no significant Winter to make you think of Spring in such a way. In fact there is no capitalized "Spring" at all, only "spring," and that passes in less than a day. It quickly gives way to the un-joyful anticipation of heat and humidity. In those days (I live on the seventh floor) walking inside at five o'clock, my linoleum floor feels like hot sand under my bare feet. So...spring!
Yet illusion it was. After a week of dreadful wet cold weather and, because of it, tonsillitis (for the second time this year), waking up today, feeling better after my eleventy-hundredth hour of sleep this week, and the slightest of warmth in the air (my floor was still cold), then yes, today, I can celebrate spring, as I know all those folks in the states are.
But I say illusion for a good reason. In Taiwan there is no significant Winter to make you think of Spring in such a way. In fact there is no capitalized "Spring" at all, only "spring," and that passes in less than a day. It quickly gives way to the un-joyful anticipation of heat and humidity. In those days (I live on the seventh floor) walking inside at five o'clock, my linoleum floor feels like hot sand under my bare feet. So...spring!
Yet illusion it was. After a week of dreadful wet cold weather and, because of it, tonsillitis (for the second time this year), waking up today, feeling better after my eleventy-hundredth hour of sleep this week, and the slightest of warmth in the air (my floor was still cold), then yes, today, I can celebrate spring, as I know all those folks in the states are.
