Spring = Hope

What season is it anyway? Our yard, raked clean last fall, is once again full of leaves. The snow has finally melted but it has exposed more leaves and the winds of March have blown them into our yard…as is the case in the fall. For some reason our corner lot is a collection site for the neighborhood leaves.

Spring in Minnesota is always welcome because our winters are long. No traces of snow or ice, longer days with sunshine and warmer temperatures are delicious, but it is not a pretty time of year in Minnesota. I wouldn’t want to show off Minnesota in the spring.

True, there are the spring flowers which I love. Multi-colored tulips, white, yellow or purple crocuses, perky yellow or white daffodils and purple hyacinths, all popping up out of the ground. They add fuel for us to get past the mud and sand and brown grass and leafless trees, to summer. 

But the wind…the wind is not a friend. It’s hard to walk. It’s hard to bike. It’s brings in cold air. It changes the temperatures back to wind chills. It blows dirt and grime and garbage and leaves all over. It is not a pretty site.

So I need to focus on the positives of springtime. My birthday is in the spring. I always like saying my birthday is the first day of spring (because it is.) Easter, one of my favorite holidays, is always in the spring. Spring does not have the bugs of summer and in the spring, we can start to discard our jackets. It doesn’t “hurt” to go outside (as a friend likes to say) and you don’t have to put on all kinds of outdoor gear. The air is fresh and we can open the windows of our houses and let the stale air and winter sneezes out. Tress start budding. Spring is a hopeful time, and a time to dream of summer days and nights. I guess that is the best part of spring: Hope.