Bill Leslie: Celebrating spring is different, but more important, this year

It's good to have a grateful heart, especially this year. We need all the blessings we can count.

Posted 1:29 p.m. Apr 17, 2020 — Updated 1:29 p.m. Apr 17, 2020

CARY, N.C. — Many of you are finding creative ways to celebrate the beauty of spring. Thank you for your emails! I may not be allowed to shake your hand or give you a hug, but I appreciate your warm and thoughtful ideas on dealing with the pandemic.

Many of you are finding comfort in springtime. Journalist Tom Earnhardt calls this “the season of healing and renewal.” Tom and I were planning to take a trip to the Black River in Pender County this month. While that trip is on hold, we can still find ways to celebrate the beauty of the natural world.

You’ve seen Earnhardt on UNC-TV with his outstanding series “Exploring North Carolina.” Tom shared some of his favorite North Carolina photographs from spring.

Tom Earnhardt, of UNC-TV's “Exploring North Carolina,” shared his favorite photos of spring.

Earnhardt has managed to hold on to his sense of childlike wonder:

“I still experience the same curiosity and awe that I felt at age 12," he says. "My passion is rooted in small farm ponds, trout streams, tidal pools, longleaf savannas and the miracle of Appalachian wildflowers. Nature is already decorating the land, rehearsing songs and preparing for our return.”

Executive Director Kate Dixon of North Carolina’s Mountains-to-Sea Trail is also contemplating the beauty around her in Raleigh.

“I have found the sounds, smells and sights of spring so comforting and newly miraculous even at my home about a mile from NC State. Just the other night, and then again the next morning, I heard an owl hooting outside my home,” she said.

Journalist Debbie Matthews, who writes columns for the Henderson Dispatch and Sanford Herald, is taking a psychological approach to this unusual season:

“Bill, I think that this ordeal will help us find depths in ourselves that we didn't even know we had. And, if it teaches me patience and stillness, an official miracle will have taken place.”

Carol Blanchard of Raleigh spends a lot of time on the phone with her “social butterfly” of a mom who misses her daily Bojangles' breakfasts with friends in Wilson:

“I spend most days now talking to her, at least 5 to 6 times a day ,but it’s good," Blanchard said. "We laugh. She tells me what she’s doing. I give her ideas of what to do, and I have driven down east a time or two and visited with “social distancing.” We are blessed that one of my brothers lives behind her. He’s an angel.”

Carol also makes time every day to walk with her husband and three dogs.

Carol Blanchard and her husband, of Raleigh, walk their three dogs daily.

“We walk them every day and enjoy the beauty of our neighborhood and wave to neighbors. We have meals, that I cook, and we say a blessing and pray for everyone – our leaders, family, friends, those sick, those taking care of the sick – and we thank God for our food.”

It’s good to have a grateful heart, especially this year. We need all the blessings we can count.

bleslie@wral.com is my email address. I love to hear from you.

Many of you wrote to me about my bluebird story. Thank you! I will have more about that soon.

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