BYO Spring

I fear Mother Nature is not going to get it done; that she’s forgotten how to bring Spring. In my life, I can’t remember another Winter in which I genuinely forgot the feeling of outdoor heat. Sure, we catch little morsels of warmth like a street urchin finding a crust of bread in some post-apocalyptic film noir. But, I fear I have lost the muscle memory of frolicking in a meadow buoyed by a beam of sunshine and warm breeze on my face. To say it has been a tough season would be the understatement of … well… the season. As Mark Helprin wrote in “Winter’s Tale,” “It was a mad and beautiful thing that scoured raw the souls… of man.” If purification is what we needed this Winter, we each are clothed in purest white yet also bear a raw nerve dreading even one more cold blast. We yen for the warmth of Summer because we have become so enveloped with, in Steinbeck’s words, the “cold of winter to give it sweetness.” So, we need to help her along. We must bring Spring ourselves. We must choose to awaken our Spring spirit. We must buoy our own attitudes. We must breathe new life and inject sweetness into our doldrums because I fear we won’t know the good Mother’s warm breath for some time now. Bring your own Spring!