By Joanne Niswander

I've just come back from my first real walk of the spring - with no coat, only a light sweater (and that was a little much). All of you Ohioans who have spent the winter inside, walking the treadmill or the indoor track, know how refreshing it is to be able to step outside with no coat and breathe in something other than cold air and snowflakes.

The first half of my walk consisted solely of drinking in the feeling of tennies on the cement and fresh air in the lungs. Then I started thinking about the people who live in tropical climates. Ones who have never experienced a bleak and dreary February. How lucky they are.

We envy them the ability to walk outside, without a coat, on any day of the year. To hear the birds sing all year long. To be able to set out for the weekend without checking to see if it's going to snow before you get home.
But have those lucky people ever felt the exhilaration that comes with a change of seasons? Have they had a chance to see goldfinches change their plumage from dull gray to bright yellow? Do they know what a snowflake feels like when it lands on your nose?

And then a song came into my head that I haven't been able to put to rest. Perhaps you know it, and perhaps you don't. But you're going to hear about it anyway, so settle in. . . .

"Amahl and the Night Visitors" has been a Christmas favorite for our family for many years. In fact, two of my daughters can entertain themselves (and you, if you're game for it) for hours, singing it all the way through including the accompaniment and staging.

The gist of the story for this short opera is that the Wise Men, following the Star, come to the home of a poor widow and her crippled son Amahl. The Wise Men ask for shelter for the night. The widow offers what they have, which is a clean floor and not much else. As the Wise Men settle in for the night, Amahl is full of questions for them. He is amazed at all the fine clothes and jewels they have with them.

But in his song "Do They Know?" Amahl sings of something much different. He sings of the things that he, Amahl, has and that the Wise Men may not have.

"Do they know how to roast sweet corn on a fire? Do They Know? Do They Know?" "Do they know how to milk a clover-fed goat? Do They Know? Do They Know?"

Many times we are envious of others who have something we don't have. We wish we could be somewhere else. We wish life could be different. We wish . . . we wish.

And then a spring breeze comes along, the crocuses start to push up, and we settle down again. It's not so bad in Bluffton, after all.