Articles
Spring Revival…
Claire’s Blog
The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also. – Harriet Ann Jacobs
No artist, novice or expert, has the magic to be able to capture the many beauties of spring and display them on a canvas with the same impact as nature itself. Vain attempts can be nothing less than extraordinary but vain none-the-less.
Nature’s Creator has a way of owning the glory with every flower that blooms and bird that sings; no artist can do that. From burnt dry fields and bare trees life seems to explode, leaving in its wake a kaleidoscope of colour. The old made new, the dead now alive, nature’s own revival every year. No wonder spring has such a deep effect on us! The change so drastic yet so lovely that ‘the human soul is apt to revive also’.
Most often these moments of pondering on deeper and greater things happen over a cup of tea in the garden or on a walk through the bush; nature demands a deep response. Sadly, our responses line up not with the magnificence of the beauty nor the impact of spring, but rather with its characteristic of being fleeting. ‘Here today, gone tomorrow’….
Its impression on the heart passing so quickly it makes apprehending difficult. Perhaps those moments can be quickly caught up in some concrete way that those glorious, fleeting feelings can be preserved?
It was only when dragged into a thrift store that I began to see how easy this could be. Never having shopped someone else’s worthless items made this moment quite awkward until I began to see the real treasures hidden on those rails. Inspired, one thing lead to the next and soon I hosted a ‘clothes swap’ party in my home. Oh the excitement and shrieks
of laughter as ladies fell in love with each other’s pre-loved items.
It’s as if the winter of the garment’s life was over and instead of the bin it was given another spring season.
This got me thinking even more – what else can be revived? It takes a little paint and new fabric to turn an old, out-dated piece of furniture into a new statement piece. In our home there is an old chair that has become so popular, it has earned the name ‘the throne’, and gets the prime spot in the living room. Obviously the overflow of creativity and
excitement lead to sanding old frames of family photos and giving them a similar new look.
Perhaps we could take this ‘revival’ concept even further, I thought, like into our relationships. We recently attended a marriage course. We’ve been married for 18 years so one may say ‘what a silly thing to do’. It was so revitalizing for our relationship as we were reminded of the joy of being together and the reward for working through our issues.
I reckon spring can invade every part of our homes and lives. In the current tight economy, why not look for new ways to release it? The key is to revive – make the old new again. Capture the essence of spring to make it everlasting.
