Spring is in the Air

This time last week I was, like most runners, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, soaking up the sun as temperatures soared into the mid-twenties. Perhaps I was, like most people, a little too eager to welcome spring and say goodbye to winter. Winter wasn’t quite ready to be displaced, and over the past couple of days we’ve felt her “wrath.” Temperatures plummeted to -18°C, and I’ve been holed up in my house, unwilling to be adventurous and venture out into the cold. So I’ve been putting off running, waiting for the warm weather to return.

I am eager for spring to arrive. This winter, although mild, has seemed long. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working hard on a number of creative projects, trying to move forward, stay focused. Winter is the beginning of my creative cycle — when creative projects take flight, where my main task is to just get down the bare bones, sketch out a very rough draft. When spring arrives, and the foundation has been laid, I am ready to begin the hard work of building the framework, filling in the details. Spring is when my creative projects begin to take shape, and I can see their possibility.

Yes, spring is, to me, a season of possibility. As I ready to move my winter coats and boats into storage, or make an appointment to have the summer tires installed on my car, spring reminds me that this is the time to, once again, unearth my dreams, focus on what is possible. Suddenly, the idea that I have, at 38, to learn to row doesn’t seem so crazy. I’m not looking to train to make the Canadian Olympic team (but then again, why not?), but when I learn to do something new — step outside my comfort zone — I inevitably learn something new about myself, discover a hidden talent. My spring cleaning, you see, doesn’t involve the usual household chores because it’s more about me changing up my routine, savouring the beauty that is this world. What I love about spring is how I spring into life.

It has been a long winter, a winter where I saw my weight, like my mood, rise and fall. I’ve doubted myself more, doubted my talent, despite my successes. But now, as the buds appear on the trees, as the snow (that we received overnight!) begins to melt away, spring reminds me that this is not only a season of possibility but a season of rejuvenation. I get back to basics, repeat my mantra of, “Easy does it,” as I stay the course and hold on to who I am.

Despite the tiny snowflakes still tumbling to the ground this morning, there is a spring in each step I take, and I know that I am hanging on to hope, and I will let hope carry me.