POEM AND THOUGHTS FOR SPRING

Today is a glorious, sunny day in Geneva.  My garden has escaped its wintery bonds and is busting out with colourful life – primroses, snowdrops, purple and yellow crocuses, golden daffodils and as yet unidentified shoots.  Spring is here and it is most welcome.

I am reminded about ‘being in the moment’, the philosophy that suggests that you forget the past – it’s gone: don’t worry about the future – it might never happen; and instead enjoy whatever beauty and happiness you can find right now.  This is the secret of a contented life.

Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, evidently said : “If you are depressed you are living in the past.  If you are anxious you are living in the future.  If you are at peace you are living in the present.”

On a day like today it is easy to be in the present.  Whatever your circumstances, why don’t you try it?

 

TODAY

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

 

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

 

and unlatch the door to the canary’s cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

 

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

 

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

 

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

 

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

 

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

 

Billy Collins