There is a song I love, on an album I lose myself in each time I listen to it.  The song is called “Spring is Coming” and it’s on the album by Stephen Curtis Chapman called Beauty Will Rise. SCC wrote this album after the tragic death of his young daughter.  If you have never heard it, stop right now.  Go to iTunes.  Buy it.  Then come back.
Once you have returned, and before I go any further, there are a couple things you should know about me.
1.  I love music.  A truly talented composer that can capture a story, an emotion, a visual through nothing but music is a rare creation indeed.  When a song touches my soul at its deepest point, and I find myself hitting “repeat” over and over, I know that I am in the presence of a true master.  Or at the very least, an artist who was touched by inspiration at the moment he or she sat down at their instrument and began to compose.  I get my love of music honestly…my parents are both quite musical and they raised all of my siblings and I on a healthy diet of music.  I can remember my dad sitting on the sofa in the living room, his head back, his eyes closed, and a favorite song of his playing on the hi-fi.  No, not wifi.  HI-FI.  As in hi-fidelity stereo system.  It was a radio, record player and hefty piece of furniture, all wrapped in one beautiful package.  That image of my dad is one that is indelibly marked on me, because now, I do the same.Â
2. I love stories.  I have loved stories ever since I can remember being able to read.  And that is pretty much my entire life.  I love a story that captures my attention and whisks me away to another time, another place.  I think it started with Nancy Drew and her uncanny ability to solve crimes in her perfect, yet strangely crime-ridden community.  She had it all…a handsome and successful father, that beautiful titian hair, those unlikely friends George and Bess, that convertible car, Ned Nickerson!  She was my idol.  I wanted to be her and often times could be found “sleuthing” in my own room, creating mysteries to solve, and, parties to attend while solving said mysteries.  Oh, the memories!
3. Â Put those two together and for me, it is a perfect storm. Â I can get lost in the words of a song and be carried away on the swell created by the ebb and flow of the musical notes. Â I will, like my dad all those years ago, sit with my head back, my eyes closed and my ears completely in tune with the music while my soul and my heart are lifted, and, for a brief moment in time, taken away to an alternate reality.
So when I first listened to the album Beauty Will Rise, I was tossed about in that perfect storm and so consumed by the raw honesty and emotion held in each song, that sometimes it was too much…even for me.
The final song on that album is called “Spring is Coming” and it has such a hopeful air about it after 11 previous songs of heartache, sorrow and doubt, that I can’t help but be hopeful too. Â The chorus is very simple:
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And all we’ve been hoping and longing for soon will appear
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And it won’t be long now, it’s just about here
Go to iTunes and find the song. Â It will uplift you. Â I promise. Â The chorus has a clean, refreshing air to it. Â You know that feeling when you open all the windows on that first warm day of spring and you practically feel the house sucking in lungfuls of fresh, clean spring air? Â That is this song. Â You know the smell when the first buds of spring flowers open their delicate petals and shower the world in fragrance? Â That is this song.
Right now, I am living that. Â It is spring here in Florida. Â And that means one thing: Â Citrus Blossoms. Â I have two citrus trees in my yard and they are drenched in blooms. Â And the smell? Â It’s as clean and sweet a scent as you will ever smell.
This morning, I simply had to take pictures of the citrus blossoms. Â As I was snapping away, wishing I could somehow capture the scent as well as the sight, I looked up and saw this fantastic shot, just waiting to be taken.
The past in the background, fading away. Â But the present…such a hopeful, precious gift of what is promised in the future. Â And it promises to be sweet, dripping with delicious goodness.
Spring is coming…and it’s almost here!
