This Mom's Ready for Newness that Spring Brings

Could it really be spring? On March 18?   

I don’t know about you but the past two days have been the most beautiful days.  The cornflower blue sky of yesterday made way for today’s warmer breezes.  I almost don’t want to jinx it by believing it’s actually here.

I left the local college I work at promptly at 5 to get a jump on my Friday night and spied college kids throwing Frisbees, playing hacky sac and just lounging around the green spaces.  Kids in flip flops unloading SUVs with the night’s “supplies” of food and beverages.  Is it really here? 

As I pulled into my neighborhood, windows down, acting as if it was 80 degrees myself, I spied the gaggle of neighborhood kids (including mine) playing flag football on a neighbor’s lawn. Laughing, cheeks flushed, with muddy knees because they all begged us to wear shorts today since yesterday was “SO HOT!”  

“Please Mom; we were sweating on the bus ride home.”   

I acquiesced, but not without my seasoned New England mother’s spring and fall mantra, “half and half!”  Which means if you’re going to wear shorts in 50 degree weather, then you better have long sleeves on or vice versa.

After the winter we just had, with one blizzard after another and several feet of accumulation, I am ready for the newness that spring brings.  Many dark afternoons in January I gave thanks to the almighty Wii my parents sent for Christmas when day after day the kids were stuck inside after school.  In February, I never thought we’d see the ground again.  I couldn’t even imagine the Volkswagen-sized piles at the end of my driveway (that did some considerable damage to my bumpers BTW) would ever be gone.   

There’s a certain camaraderie about it also.  It’s in the air.  People just seem happier.  There even was a dad out there with flags on his belt teaching his nephew, the youngest of the bunch, the rules of the game (Aw, how sweet.)  And I’m not even being sarcastic here!  

I stopped to chat and he told me they may be heading to the beach with a picnic dinner if we wanted to join them.  My son ran up to the car full of life, out of breath, “please can we go, too? Pleeeeeease?”  It’s a charmed life, I thought.     

Maybe we feel this way because New England serves us our winters icy cold and thick with inch upon inch of snow and ice.  Maybe the vitamin D from the sun really does improve our moods. 

I tend to think that life is sweeter when you’re pushed to your limit and then finally, you get a taste of the sweet reward. When you’ve experienced the cold and darkness for so long, no cozy fire, no cup of hot chocolate and no gentle snowfall are going to satisfy you any longer.  You are just plain done with it and ready for the new day to come.  

Whatever it is, I’m thankful for it and hoping it’s staying!