We received over three inches of rain in the night. Besides feeling the earth wet under your feet, you can tell something happened. The pyracantha’s glossy leaves and red berries are glistening. The live oaks are happy. How can I tell they are happy?

The ones in the yard, the ones across the street on the hill, their branches are stretched upward, open to the day. In just these few hours, there is new growth in fully mature trees, tender not-yet-hardened leaves shooting toward the sky. Joy opening upward.

How do we know when humans are happy? How does rain smell after a dry spell? What is our water? What is the difference between a day when we breathe in and breathe out, just like the days before, and a day after a rain? What’s it like to grow? How does stretching, does opening feel? How does sweet clean air feel against new skin?

Welcome spring. Happy happy equinox.