Although green is my favorite color, I didn’t wear it today and I’m happy to report I didn’t get pinched, although I wouldn’t expect to in Aldi or Trader Joe’s. 🙂 We moved here from the Chicago area and today (yesterday as you read this) the river will be run green. We stayed far away from downtown on St. Patrick’s Day as being around huge crowds is bad enough but when alcohol is involved, no thanks. However, Guinness was my entry-level dark beer so I have a fond spot in my heart for it. We did have corned beef and potatoes for dinner sans cabbage because I don’t care for boiled cabbage. Salad and good bread filled in nicely and tomorrow will be even better when the leftover corned beef and potatoes become corned beef hash. So good and I think even better than the separate ingredients the first day.
But green isn’t just for St. Patrick’s, it’s the color of spring, which is often how I think of it having lived in the Midwest for almost my entire life. When my parents used to come from Arizona to visit us in Ohio, they always commented on all the trees and how green everything was. I always felt that was a bit like the relatives who saw you infrequently starting by declaring, “My, how you’ve grown!” What had they expected?
“I just need green. I need to wake up and see grass and squirrels. I don’t want to see skyscrapers.” – Andre Leon Talley
The green I miss is the spring green, the here’s-what-you’ve-been-waiting-for green, a green that at its most beautiful serves as a background to spring’s wildflowers…
…or blossoms higher in the spring air.
“Nature in her green, tranquil woods heals and soothes all afflictions.” – John Muir
In South Dakota near the Badlands, sometimes green is what draws your eyes.
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.” – Lois Lowry
In the desert, green is harder to find and better protected but much appreciated when seen.
“Every green natural place we save saves a fragment of our sanity and gives us a little more hope that we have a future.” – Wallace Stegner
And sometimes, well, it’s all about the green.
“leaves glow under
a haze of sunlight,
and hang
still on a windless
day”
― Bremer Acosta, Cosmos in a Tree
This, that and the other thing 