Winter’s Cold Spring Erases

The end of February is hard.  We have had it with winter here in Michigan.  We stare endlessly at the sky looking for the sun and we are absolutely nutty after being inside too long because it’s so cold outside.  We are tired of the slippery sidewalks and snow-covered vehicles and days that seem to have about 2 hours of daylight.  Our skin is dry and bleeds easily because we have either been in front of a fireplace for months or our furnace had been running for 23 hours a day. We all get a bit salty because we haven’t been around real people for awhile and we forget how to interact.  Reality is, we are ready for spring.  Really, really ready.

Michigan winters are cold and blistery and freezing and dark and cloudy and slippery and sometimes our fingers hurt and our toes are frozen and our cheeks burn from the icy sleet that hits us.  That’s winter.  But right around this time of year something inside of us changes.  Things begin to smell different.  The ice isn’t as slippery.  The sun seems to want to hang around a little longer.  We can see people’s hair again.  We start to wear t-shirts and shorts when it turns 40 degrees.  We gleefully put our winter jackets and snow pants and scarves away (keeping our hats and gloves out just a smidgen longer).  We take our dogs for longer walks.  We begin to long for baseball instead of basketball.  We start to think about flowers and our yards and our thoughts drift to hot summer days at the beach.  And, most importantly, we start to forget the last few months of weather.  Spring makes everything feel alive again.

Winter’s cold spring erases, indeed.