Musings of a Badlands Ranch Wife

When I was growing up in Massachusetts, back when the tetradactyl flew overhead, my dad would eagerly await the arrival of the first robin to signal the start of spring. The tradition was that the first member of our family to see the first robin would be taken to our local Friendly’s Ice Cream parlor to get a banana split. I do not know how this happened, but my mom was always the first to see the robin. However, there was no need to feel the despair of losing because if dad took mom to the ice cream shop, there was no one left to watch the six kids at home, so dad just took us all. Thanks MOM! We would all sit at the counter, from oldest to youngest, and order our Jim Dandy’s (banana splits). Dad would whip out his bottle of cherries- Friendly’s never put cherries on their Jim Dandy’s- and pass it down the line. We would put the cherry on top, dive into our ice cream and celebrate the arrival of spring. My dad was an avid gardener and for him, spring was a time of new beginnings. It was an opportunity to start new, to put last year behind him, and to sow his hopes into the soil for the upcoming year. It was a celebration of all that could be, not what was. A robin decided to perch on my windowsill just recently, and as I watched it, I realized that I have left behind that optimism, that hope in what is before me. I have forgotten to celebrate the little things that mean so much. Thank you Dad, for sending that robin my way. Your robin is right before you- celebrate each moment. Rejoice in those little things that we tend to miss in the craziness of our days. Go get yourself a banana split and rejoice in the promise of a new day. I will bring the cherries.

“The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land” Song of Solomon 2:12