Spring puts a spirit of youth in our step

This week’s Mediahuis/Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

There was a hint of cold weather last week. So far this winter we have got away very lightly. I remember one day, back in 1985 cycling in West Berlin, it was 20 degrees minus, indeed, it was so cold I had to get off the bicycle and go into a shop to warm myself.

We are fortunate to have such a mild climate in Ireland. We have no extremes of weather, at least not yet.

The garden in the hospital where I work is beginning to burst with new life. The birds are at full voice and making hay too.

Every day is getting longer, the clocks go forward at the end of the month, proof positive that spring is here.

It happens every year, you might say the same old story. But whatever it is about it, the arrival of spring and the expectation of summer days and nights gladdens our hearts.

 

We have been through some tough times but on the scale of things it is small compared to what people experience in catastrophes. 

I have no idea whatsoever what it must be like today in those parts of Turkey and Syria, which were hit by February’s earthquakes, or what it must be like in Ukraine as the invading Russian army kills, maims and razes buildings to the ground. It is unthinkable. 

When I see soldiers on the front line being interviewed and capable of laughing I’m lost for words. 

There must be some sort of mechanism in the human spirit that kicks in and gives people the strength to cope with almost any pain or suffering. Is that what resilience is? Honestly, I don’t understand it. You hear people talk about the adrenaline rush that kicks in in dangerous or stressful situations. 

The worlds of medicine and the related sciences are constantly discovering how our minds and bodies work and how we cope with all the situations with which we have to deal.

The anti-war film ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is an eye opener to the savagery of war and how people cope in unimaginable situations. And there are those who don’t cope. But why do we allow such evil to happen? What is it about us that drives us racing into such horrible acts of barbarity?

Is it all part of the cycle of our lives? A friend told me he had been watching the RTÉ programme ‘Reeling in the Years’ and it struck him how it’s the same old stories that keep turning up year after year. The events that were happening 20, 30, 40 years ago are the same events happening today, just dressed up in different clothes.

 

What at all is it all about? I keep asking the question, never getting closer to a satisfactory answer. 

But in the meantime, make the best of these fabulous days of spring. And guess what, a smile rather than a frown will put a spring in our step.

Everything about our lives is cyclical and right now we are on the up curve. Enjoy it.

‘April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.’ - Shakespeare. And we’re nearly there.