Hello Spring

Hello Spring

Or: Between a Dream, Reality, and a Slice of Cheesecake by the Sea

Prologue – One Night, One Dream, One Mistake

Last night, I dreamed of spring.

Of warmth.
Of light.
Of that feeling that everything is starting to get a little easier again.

And then I woke up –
in Schleswig-Holstein, in Germany’s “true north.”

Where spring is not a promise.
Just an occasional visitor.

It often only drops by briefly.
For a few hours.

Then the sun comes out,
the sky opens up,
the wind goes still.

Only the cold
has not quite given up its place yet.

And Then There Is Reinhold

At some point, Reinhold can no longer stay on the sofa.

That, by the way, is no dream.
That is reality.
And the kind
that does not invite discussion.

“Today I’m cleaning the windows.”

A sentence that sounds like a harmless suggestion –
but is, in truth, the starting signal.

Spring cleaning.

Windows inside and out.
And we both know:
that is only the beginning.

Spring does not simply arrive here.
It has to be uncovered.
Pane by pane.

A Day by the Sea (with Hawthorn and Reality)

And then it really comes.
That one day.

Sun.
Sea.
And air
that suddenly no longer works against us.

We drive to the sea.
Walk along the water,
still a little bundled up,
but already lighter in spirit.

Along the path: blooming hawthorn.

Those small white blossoms,
as if they had decided:
winter is over now.

Unfussy.
And all the more beautiful because of it.

We keep walking,
with that quiet feeling
that it is possible to breathe more freely again.

And of course, afterward, we want to go to a café.

A beach chair?
Forget it.

They are all taken –
by people who apparently believed in spring faster than we did.

So we sit inside.
With a view outside
that is just as good –
if we are honest.

Coffee.
Cheesecake.

And suddenly, everything is fine.

Not spectacular.
Not perfect.
But exactly right.

Epilogue – No More Than This

In the end, not much remains.

A dream that was not quite true.
Freshly cleaned windows.
Hawthorn by the path.
A day by the sea.
A slice of cheesecake.

And that feeling
that life does not need a grand plan right now.

Just one good moment.

And perhaps one more slice of cheesecake
than one had originally intended.

More reflections from the series “Life In Between” can be found 👉 here.