When a Leap Year occurs, such as occurred last month with the extra day tacked onto February, spring comes early, so today marks the arrival of the season of hope. I’m all for an early spring, in every possible way. Perhaps you’ve noticed some ornamental changes happening here as this site enters the spring season – some vining florals have been winding their way along the borders and featured picture boxes. Spring is more than just flowers and vines – it speaks to something deeper, something more powerful. It speaks to hope, rebirth, and renewal.
This year, it also speaks to youth – lost, found, destroyed, and conjured. My niece and nephew turn 14 years old at the end of this month, and that was the age I remember coming into the voice and soul I still feel like I have today. Of course kids grow up a little quicker these days, so perhaps they’ve been in such headspace for a while. I was always a little slower and more hesitant to grow like that.
And so we enter spring with a slower step, a contemplative step, a step that moves us forward while taking a quick look back – something I am loathe to do, but willing to try for all the good that was in the past.
‘Last night when we were young’ might be a reference to the last day of winter, the last night of one’s youth, or the last bit of innocence before the world reveals some of its darker secrets. Whatever way one reads it, it’s a time for consideration of where we each stand. Slowly, I’m embracing what that means, even when it means growing up a little at this mid-to-late stage of life. There is always room to grow, and spring has often been the bearer of that beautiful lesson. Spring, with its air of hope, its sweet perfume of floral possibility ~ spring, with its tricky weather, its cold nights braced by its encroaching warm breezes ~ spring, with its green splendor and voluptuous buds, tight and hard and coiled…
Spring is when it all happens, even when it might not feel like it in its first few days. All I can promise is that the end will look nothing like the beginning. Take your time and stumble through it with me – spring is better when done with company.
