“Oh, good gigantic smile o’ the brown old earth.”

– Robert Browning

It’s nearly time.  My sweetheart has brought the tiller out of its winter storage place and the fallen leaves we used last Autumn to blanket the garden bed will soon be turned under, adding their last bit of life to the new season.  I can’t wait for the earth to smile with its pungent brown aroma and call my awakening Springtime soul out to the magical land of my garden.  For the last month, I have been starting seeds on the windowsill of my woman-cave; and now they are ready for the cold nights to give way to the balmy weather needed for their growth and flourishing.

Today the engine of the tiller will hum as its blades bounce along the surface, tear it away, and turn the earth upside down.  I will follow behind, grab a double handful of the smiling brown soil and take a long whiff of the aroma of future abundance.  The worms and I will dance through the garden bed and anticipate the summer yet to come.  Mixed in that whiff of the springtime soil will be the sweet smell of ripe tomatoes, the spicy scent of peppers, the cool green taste of cucumbers, the succulent flavor of squash fresh off the grill.  The scent of a freshly-turned garden bed is magical.  It carries the future as it wafts across the yard and calls me out to plant the dreams that summer’s harvest will make real.

Do you smell that?  It’s the earth, and she’s smiling.