Calico Pen: In search for joy
Poised above the Big Sky country is the maestro, the great conductor. At just the right moment, the baton is lowered, and it is thrust toward the magnificently golden daffodils and …TATATATAH!
Spring is in Montana. Like the water show at the Bellagio in Vegas, bleeding hearts and asparagus spears rise to the occasion, bursting through soft, warm soil. Tuba-shaped tulips, dressed in Easter egg colors take their places for the jubilation.
Sweeping down the Rocky Mountain front comes the wind section, crescendoing across the last of the snowpack, releasing babbling brooks and the orchestration swells.
Across the pink-purple sky a V of Canadian geese make their way to the destination, swooping onto the pond for respite and conversation. Old ladies totter out of their winter shelters in a slow parade of Easter bonnets seeking the same solace.
Youngsters emerge, taller, with sleeves and pant legs shrunk. They come on bikes and scooters with marbles and jacks, jump ropes and other tools of spring.
The clotheslines are laden with quilts and blankets and rugs and the winds send them flapping, sometimes across the yards. Closets are purged and stacks are made for garage sales and Goodwill stores. Barbecues stand at attention alongside chairs and tables and the patio parties are planned.
Down at the doggie park the crowd is back – running, yapping, tails wagging and ears flying in the race to be the best and have the most fun.
Over at the playgrounds, braids are flying in swings and bouncing on teeter-totters and there they all are – the strollers, filled with last year’s cherubs, guarded by grinning mothers.
All things new again. Mothers are everywhere, parading their little ones. Goslings, all fluffy, in single file holding up traffic, hoping to get to the other side of the road. Fawns and big-snouted moose calves are all waiting for the right moment to cross. Like sentinels the gophers sit on haunches, little paws poised and with deliberate calculations, they take their chances.
And don’t we all? Some will cross safely and some will not.
Why try? Because of joy. This is the prize. Joy is not in the barrow pit and it will not come to find you. It is in your heart, in my heart and exponentially enlarged when two or more join in celebration. Happy Spring.
(Carol Holoboff is a former Libby resident who now writes her column from Great Falls).