Spring has sprung

Spring has arrived in the Midwest.

With it comes color in the form of daffodils and tulips, blue skies, and green grass. The black and white of winter, except for the rare, wet snows of spring, are gone for the next several months.

While winter is beautiful, it is always comforting to see, feel, smell, touch, and hear the signs of new life in the form of sprouting flowers and buds on trees.

More people are outside, walking their dogs and talking with neighbors. To be sure, most everyone is keeping a safe distance, but it is good to see more activity. I feel a sense of hope and renewal.

Such feelings occur every year. It’s not because of the pandemic; it’s because the calendar foretells us of the coming changes. Regardless of circumstances, spring heralds the arrival of welcome changes in life.

How lucky are we, who make our living from crops that come from the ground. Farmers are in the fields, planting and tending to tender shoots of new produce. All of this work, which must be so painstakingly taken to provide for a hungry world, is so worth it.

My hat is off to all the workers in the supply chain, whose diligence, knowledge, and experience finds their way to my dinner plate every evening.

It seems so small, saying just “thank you” for so much effort, risk, love of the job, and beautiful fruits and vegetables, but it is the best I can come up with.

My thank you is heartfelt, full of admiration, respect, and appreciation for the panoply of fruits and vegetables that make walking through the supermarket aisles so vivid and fun. I am not a foodie and I can’t cook, but one does not need to be a sommelier to enjoy a glass of wine.

I am totally in rapture with nature and what it does with every cycle of a season. May this cycle of events never change and may our work to feed a hungry world—in a responsible way—remain our calling.

How lucky are we, indeed.