Spring is Here

Spring kind of snuck up on me. I guess I was too busy to notice the parade of colors developing outside the windows of my house. Today was not the sunniest of days, but I just happened to set in a chair facing the big glass window and as if it happened overnight, spring was painting the world with the bright, vibrant and energetic colors of youth, colors that starkly contrast the gray palette with which the winter has covered our surroundings. The blooming trees are coming back to announce to us the start of a new cycle of life.

It is easy for us to love spring as it brings as much hope to our lives as our children carry. The blooming flowers are the giggles of their happiness, the budding trees announce their first steps in life, the green hardy grass declares their readiness to to tackle the future with all that it brings.

Summer is also an easy favorite, for many, for it is usually associated with our care free time as kids and young adults. It was a time for walking or playing on the beach, enjoying true and innocent friendships, laughing till we cry and crying as we learn to tame our emotions. It was time for falling in and out of love, venturing into maturity and learning to be and to be on our own. For those of us who are deep into adulthood, summer remains as a time to relive those memories again with the young in our lives. It is the season for dreaming and reliving the best of your dreams over and over again.

Unfortunately summer does not last forever and soon we start noticing those beautiful colors appearing in our surroundings, marking the season of Fall. It is not one of those seasons that is as easy to love as we did the spring and summer for despite the beauty that easily matches, if not surpasses, that of the spring, for many this is analogous to our late adulthood. A time when we are most capable of loving and giving. A time for our most creative and productive work. Yet, it is time when we see the brightest and most colorful leaves around us fall into the ground and fly away of our sight and lives. It is time we progressively feel the coming of the cold and lifeless winter. The beauty of the sring and fall maybe both breath taking, yet they cannot be more different in the emotions they stir in us.

Along comes the cold and gray winter. Trees look lifeless, the grass is brown and the sun seems too old to rise high in the sky. To many it is the least favorable of the seasons, yet it has its beauty. It is the time to get close to those dear in our life. It is time for families to get together, to huddle around the fire, to talk and laugh and talk some more. It is a chance to appreciate what we had and look forward to the future for soon the spring will sneak up on us again!