They had to cancel – postpone — the Cubs home opener at Wrigley Field at the beginning of the month.

News of April blizzards in pockets of our country abound. I guess they got around 20 inches in St. Paul over this past weekend.

We could take a historical perspective, marveling at the rarity of so much white stuff landing so late in the year, or we could look at how lives have been affected. Because they had to shut down the Minneapolis – St. Paul airport, hundreds of vacationers were stranded in Mexico.

Closer to home, many of us have taken up a twisted game of conjecturing on the influence of  karma.  We’ve asked ourselves, Is this delay to spring our just desserts for not having an especially cold and nasty winter?

When I was out with my friend, Terrilee, recently, we shared our eagerness for the actual arrival of spring (warmer temperatures, not the calendar announcement0.

I talked about spring as the marquee sign acknowledging that baseball and outdoor concerts would soon be filling my time.

She talked about being re-united with her bike, her Honda 1300 motorcycle, which she was keeping in winter storage.  She couldn’t wait to ride it; to forget the stresses of the day and remember the sense of freedom riding it brings her.

After contemplating how to get friends to help her retrieve it, she opted to have it delivered.  (Getting a truck and tie-downs and friends with time during the dealer’s service hours is not an easy task.)

The special delivery did not go perfectly. Their truck driver called her from the wrong alley one block away, calling her cell and asking where she was. Eventually, the drop-off was accomplished.

She texted me.  My bike was delivered…Yippee!

I was so taken with her unbridled enthusiasm about her special delivery.

My building’s downstairs hallway is usually a receiving area for small packages labeled Amazon Prime. The young couple that lives right above me regularly gets gourmet meal kits from Blue Apron.  And Grub Hub or Waiter D – restaurant deliveries are easy to arrange.

We live in a world where we expect things will come to us, that they should come to us – wherever we are.

I felt compelled to look up the definition of deliver.  Two main tracks came up….”To take or hand over” and “to set free.”

Most of us understand the meaning of DELIVERY from a logistics standpoint.  It’s about convenience and efficiency.  The word also conveys a certain state of mind that borders on the spiritual.  People can be “delivered” by grace or can be “delivered” from mundane tasks of conveying things between places. In choosing “delivery,” people feel somehow freed.

We’ve gotten so used to the idea of things being delivered to us. Certainly, some conscious reflection is in order.  It can be a great convenience when a home-cooked meal can come to us where we live when we’re too tired to make one.  It’s a great support when groceries can be delivered to people who can’t drive or can walk without help.

But isn’t it good not to become too blasé?

When Terrilee texted with excitement about her bike being delivered to her home, I thought about the scene from The Music Man, when all the kids in River City, Iowa are waiting for their band instruments and uniforms to arrive.

Marion the librarian was dubious, at best, about the promises of Professor Hill being ligit, but no one would want to dampen the enthusiasm of the kids, of the town awaiting delivery.  Everyone understood DELIVERY of band instruments could transform their town.

I decided that I have to look at spring that way…as a special delivery coming for me.  I don’t know when it will happen or what exactly I will get, but I have decided to accept the wait as part of the gift.

Being ready to receive the unknown joys of a season is no small thing.