The first warm days of the year in London are always my favourite but the arrival of spring this year means we’ve managed to get through another winter through the pandemic which makes these first golden rays and longer days feel sweeter than ever.
This last week has been so sunny and beautiful here, it’s almost as if you can feel and hear the whole city breathing together to release a collective long sigh of relief as if to say ‘wow, we did it, we survived, we made it!’. I don’t know if it’s seasonal amnesia but this year my senses feel like they’re on overdrive, like I’m literally high on spring! I feel like I’ve never seen so many daffodils in all my life, they’re sprouting everywhere, all these new kinds I’ve never even seen before, squealing ‘hello’! I love getting to see/hear people cycle past me blasting their optimistically bright music of choice of Bluetooth speakers tied to their backpacks for all to hear. Never have I been happier to see my fav neighbourhood, Colombian uncle, Oscar posted on the park bench, sipping cold beers with his speaker on wheels playing cumbia in the park outside my house.
I love that communal feeling between strangers that the Sun makes possible, the shared smiles, the sudden urge to talk to each other “what about this weather then!”, after a long winter of just shuffling past one another, existing. But when the Sun shines down on us we are suddenly co-existing, living under her glimmering roof altogether. I well and truly live for kindred interaction with a stranger. I think out of everything, it’s what really makes me feel alive! It’s like the purest of magic how one hello can often have the potential to make that person suddenly a stranger no more.
The literal and metaphysical architecture of the city can so often make us feel like there is no time to greet each other, that to say hello, in a pandemic were sharing air became a threat, especially for those of us whose existences/bodies make us more vulnerable to violence, opens us up to even more danger, and yes I’m not disagreeing with that reality because it is very real but at the same time I want to and need to continue to believe in the protective power of that hello, because I know it has the capacity to build bridges, communities and the new worlds we are yearning for.
In the constant uproar that is life on this planet, a sunny spring day forces me to be present with all that is, grateful for all that I have and hopeful for all that is yet to come. That at least today, we have this day. This day is for everyone. This day is for all.
This is so sweet. Also I hard relate - I love love love seeing happy Londoners in the sun. It coats everything in an air of sweetness :)
Hope you're holding onto that Spring even now it's a bit more moody x
"I love that communal feeling between strangers that the Sun makes possible" is quite possibly the warmest sentence i've reading in a long while. i enjoyed this drabble :)