Spring is Sprung

Daffy daff. I wondered why this one grew with its back to the sun until I realized that, like a trumpeter heralding the king, its job is to announce the royal presence. A new day, a new season, a new year, a new cycle.

Spring officially arrived in a blustery sunny burst of hail yesterday morning. Victoria weather is always a mixed bag. One minute pouring, the next minute blindingly bright, always windy, then … ye gods, is that hail? The sky holds everything from gulls hanging on the updraft to clouds so dense that light bends around them. Don’t like what you’ve got? Wait five minutes. It will change—and if not, the gods made you adaptable. So adapt.

Hands up, everyone who knows yesterday was also International Happiness Day. Another important date, like Random Acts of Kindness Week, that got no media attention. I only know about it because Ter, despite her present obsession with “Where in the World is Malaysian Air Flight 370?”, has chosen to receive—gasp!—positive (?!) headlines on her FB newsfeed and continually flips me links to keep me inspired. (I am not insensitive to the MA370 mystery, by the way; I’m as baffled and suspicious as anyone, but life must go on for those whose lives can go on.) It’s preaching to the converted, but I voted among the 87% who believe that true success is based on “happiness and wellbeing” rather than “money and stuff”. I will always have what I need and I will always be loved. Excellent starting points from which to build.

Today is “Ru Happiness Day”. Despite slogging through my second cold in two months, I am safe, warm, plugged into a green tea IV, and following my bliss. Yep, that’d be writing. Whether it be blog posts, handwritten notes for a new short story, or trying to keep a young man’s fancy from jumping the gun in the novel, I am doing what I love to do best. Playing with words. Describing pictures. Transcribing conversations. Forgetting to eat. Disregarding the time. I do have the finale of True Detective on tap over lunch, but other than that, spring has sprung, the day is mesmerizing … and my back is to the window, my face bathed in the sickly blue glow of the monitor, and my gyokuro imperial green tea is just about steeped. Watch out, cold symptoms.

Happiness abounds.