WHAT IS IT ABOUT SPRING?


Is there something extra-special about this season?

Why not winter? People who love to ski and snowboard and sled and ice fish look forward to winter with fervor and impatience.

And summer--most kids I knew growing up couldn't wait for summer vacation. The tiny minority (me and three other kids) suffered until it was time to buy back-to-school clothes and shoes and pencils and tablets.

You'd think autumn would be the season I long for because it's my favorite. But here in the northeast corner of Indiana autumn doesn't seem to last long enough to register as a season. There are never enough autumn days to satisfy me.

But spring--what does spring mean for us?

An end to winter . . . yes, we look forward (some of us) to an end to predictions of multi-inch snowfalls, complete with freezing rain. We've grown weary of dressing in so many layers that it takes fifteen minutes to put them on and at least that long to get them off wherever it is that we're going. (More than once I've said the-hell-with-it and stayed home.) Leftover piles of snow that apparently aren't ever going to melt . . . cloudy skies . . . tiny breezes that ramp up just as I'm opening the front door to get the mail . . . .

What else does spring bring?

A beginning for new life--plants poke their heads above ground to test the air temp. Baby animals are born/hatched to start the cycle of life once more.

Beautification of roadside, yard, park--any place that hosts trees, shrubs, bushes, flower beds.

Warmer temps, you say? Those are a come-and-go proposition around here. Warm and sunny one day, cool and sunny the next. Then warm and cloudy (aka muggy), cool and cloudy (fog). If you want consistently warm days, you might want to emigrate farther south.

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Clearly the subject isn't open for debate, campaigning, or voting. Spring is what spring is. Spring comes when she comes. All my wishing and wanting, my ranting and railing, won't change the time or place or character of spring.

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Like you--like nearly everyone else--I'm ready, willing, and eager for spring to whisk in and change my days. 

Since this will be another long-ish wait (March 19th is the spring equinox), I'm trying to control my impatience. Hope you can do the same.