Deep in the winter of 1994, I left my New England home and came to Florida. There were a number of reasons for the move. A yearning to live in a tropical climate didn’t even make the list.
I’ve learned to embrace this place including the weather; most surprising to me has been how much I’ve come to relish the summer.
I love the sudden winds that bring our afternoon thunderstorms, and gully washers that sweep in from the Everglades and leave behind the sweetest air. I love those thunderstorms so much that just the sound of one approaching makes me hasten to leave wherever I might be and rush outside so I can watch it. (Photo is by renowned Everglades photographer Clyde Butcher.)
I love how every green and growing thing explodes – all at once – as though released from six-months of holding its breath.
I love how quiet and peaceful it is once the winter people leave – and how I can park right in front of the library. Lines disappear in a moment and the annual refrain is heard: “hooray, we can go out to dinner again“.
There’s no ice. I’ve never had to scrape a windshield.
But I do miss the smell of lilacs and the rich velvet of tulips. I’ll always miss those.
You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both.
