The weather is warmer. The days are getting longer. Plants are beginning to bud and bloom. Spring is here! And it’s my favorite time of the year.
It’s not just the weather that I love, but also the opportunity. Spring brings new life. For some reason that notion carries over from the physical world and into my mind. It feels like a fresh start. Inspiration strikes me. I get the idea that I could in fact accomplish the mile long list of dreams I’ve written out. Spring hasn’t just sprung, so have I!
Yet, this time feels different. 1) The weather is not quite as lovely in Alaska as it is in Arizona. I haven’t been able to wear my sandals yet (I’m rolling my eyes). My customary footwear tan lines are nowhere to be seen. 2) We’re “hunkering down”. Usually spring finds me wandering all over the place. Driving into new towns to climb up a different trail or sit by a river. This time last year I was really in a season of “new” as I made the trip from Arizona through Canada to Alaska. With travel restrictions I can’t bring myself to call my misadventures “critical”. So I’m sitting still. Spring has sprung, but in fact I have not.
So, what does one do instead? Look for the adventures at home. With some recent low tides in town, I’ve been exploring a whole new world of intertidal life. Chitons, sea cucumbers, anemones, crabs, and sea stars. All much slimier than the prickly critters of the desert. I walk further down the beach than I have before. It’s not open toed shoe weather, but it’s definitely warmer. The sun lights up the sky till 9pm, so I’ve been walking for hours before I realize it. I finally finished crocheting a mitten I started back in January. It was too big, so I started a second, smaller mitten. Does anyone need one large mitten? I read. I write. I jot down ideas as they come, adding to my ever-growing list of dreams.
Maybe though it is still a season of growth – just out of the norm. Instead of springing outwards, expanding my physical boundaries to new places I’ve sprung inwards. At first it seems like retreating. More time indoors. More time to myself. But through all that time, ideas are being planted and sowed and soon enough something new will sprout up from this plot of earth.