March 18th, 2010

Spring has finally arrived in Berlin. Nature is still dead. Only the colonies are in bloom with the first pink flamingos of the year. Everyone is out, still boasting full winter coats. Thin ice. The public park is still closed, because a big book in city hall says so.

The most noticeable change is the silence. Winter is silent in a muffled way, the snow acting as the walls of a recording studio, drowning all ambient noises. Voices seem excessively loud and disruptive. Crunching footsteps make it impossible to walk around unnoticed. Spring’s, by contrast, is filled with ambient. Singing birds. Children’s screams. The crunch of a stroller on gravel.

I feel more involved with my surroundings today. The lethargy of my fellow sun worshipers is infectious. All the greens have a brownish hue, and there is a smell of damp earth. Things slowly but surely are changing, without anything we can do about it except align ourselves.