It's Spring!

Spring is here!   Spring was officially declared at 12:57 p.m. ten days ago, and winter is supposed to move on until its turn comes around again.  For you and me, Moving Forward in our lives, our thoughts, our ambitions, or our projects, spring is a reminder of all the exciting possibilities.

Spring is squirming out of the trees with tiny green leaves.  It’s peeping out of the ground with bursts of color from the bulbs.  It’s sprouting young buds from the up-stretched limbs of the fruit trees. The sun is a bit higher in the sky and is warming the ground.

Even though I love spring and welcome it, I must admit to you that I’ve enjoyed winter.  No, I’ve loved winter.  I know that could be because it was our first one in north Georgia after living in Florida for many years. I may not feel the same after a few more winters here, but not yet.    

For this winter, there was something exciting and invigorating about waking up to my little piece of the world covered in glorious, fresh dazzling snow.  I found a lovely sense of comfort wrapping my hands around my morning steaming coffee cup and letting the warmth of that first sip slide through me.  I experienced a special looking-forward-to my afternoon cup of hot tea.  I learned the absolute joy of fleece sheets.  It was suggested that I get fleece, not flannel.  I’m so glad I did because that comforting feeling of being cocooned in that soft fleece at night was pure coziness.  (The only negative to those sheets was that I didn’t want to get out of them in the morning.)

In these ten days of spring, we’ve had snow, below freezing temperature days, cloudy days, and rainy days.  Just because the calendar says spring, winter doesn’t always step aside without a last minute reminder that it has been the reigning force. 

Just because there are things you want to accomplish, it doesn’t happen all at once, as nice as that would be.  Getting started and sticking with it are the main reasons experts tell us people don’t accomplish what they’re capable of.   So if it’s getting started and sticking with it, spring is our picture lesson. 

My sweet friend, Lori, sent me two lilac bushes when I moved here.  Since the title of my book is That End of Lilac Lane, and I now live in a place where lilacs grow, I was so excited.  We found just the right place to plant them so I can see them from the kitchen window.  So far, those bushes have looked like clumps of dead sticks.   However, yesterday, I knelt down close and saw tiny purple-tinged buds swelling out all along those “sticks.”  They’re getting started!  They'll persevere until there are gorgeous clusters of lilacs, full and fragrant!  Maybe, this year, there will be enough for me to bring in a great bunch and fill an antique white pitcher that's waiting for them.  I can imagine the brilliance of those amethyst blossoms tumbling out of the pitcher and filling the house with their sweet perfume. 

Spring is trying to take its place and elbow out winter.  For us, habits that need to go or projects that need to be started have to begin--even in tiny beginnings. 

You have to bud before you bloom.  Move Forward! It’s spring! 
I'd love to hear what 'spring buds' you are planning! 
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