Spring Is Springing!!

We Love Spring!


Whether or not your convinced that Spring is here for sure, one thing I'm certain of is the Spring vibe is real and has been picking up momentum for several weeks now.  Last week it was so powerful, even though something like 6 inches of snow had fallen the night before, I had a lovely early morning walk through the park where the energy was vibrant with early Spring and the beautiful back drop of bright sunshine and freshly fallen snow.  Sure it was pretty cold outside and there was snow everywhere, but who cares?  The light was amazing, the birds were so psyched, the squirrels were so spunky, the dogs were so happy -like 3 different dogs jovially scampered up to me and dropped a ball at my feet; everyone was feeling it!  There were probably 10 times as many runners as usual most other mornings.
If you're like me and typically get depressed, discouraged and unmotivated in the winter, and you're such a sun baby like me in the summer, it's these little signs that can make you so happy and restore optimism.  For at least the past month, I've been saying to everyone, "oh my god! it's 5:00 and look how light it still is outside!", and eventually, "woah! check it out! its 6:00 and look how light it is outside!"  I think people might be sick of hearing me say it but it impresses every day.  Another big sign to me is, especially since the new moon on February 19,  I've been enthusiastically springing out of bed at 6:00am where for the past 3 months I'm still struggling sometimes at 9:00 or later, even if I go to sleep by 10:30 (I'm a hard-core hibernator).  Of course, as of Sunday, it's light until 7:00 now, which is cool I guess, but I feel like I get a good jump on things if I'm up by 6:00.  Now the sun's up at 7:00 so I am too.  I'm not quite past the time switch 'jet lag' yet, but soon it will be light at 5:00 and I'll be springing up for a run along the river.

You might think I'm crazy just because there is still snow on the ground, and many people think another cold snap and snow storm is on the horizon....  could be.  But if you get caught up in your discouragement and pessimism, and overlook all of the subtle, and yet not so subtle signs of spring, you're missing out on the excitement of it!  In the Chinese and Lunar calendar Spring arrives with the Lunar new year, which was February 19.  Those 2 weeks between the New Moon and the Full Moon were so active and productive for me, and I think probably for you too.  To me, everyone seemed to re-surface, people were busy, there was a lot of work and much more motivation to get it done, and then there were many social things going on as well.

My cats are hip to the Spring vibe too.  My 11 year old female, Momo, has been having sponaneous bursts of scampering sideways with a fiery look in her eyes the way kittens do, and Ginger, my 1 year old male (yes, male... it's ok he's named after a tomcat in a Beatrix Potter story, ok?), he's just more restless and attempting even crazier things than usual, but for certain, they have both been shedding like crazy for a couple weeks now.  Their bodies are responding to the light and the Spring energy, even though they never go outside and have no idea how cold it is or weather or not there is snow on the ground.

This morning there were birds on my roof and fire escape singing a different song.  I'm not sure if they are the same birds singing a spring-time song, or if they are new birds passing through on their way back north, but it's a new, jovial song for sure.

Of course you are probably as relieved and excited as I am that the cold weather finally broke and we had a fabulously warm and sunny couple of days starting on Sunday.  So I grabbed my friend and forced him to go walk in the park with me to look out for buds and maybe even some crocuses or snow drops if they happened to be popping up through the snow.  We did't see any flowers yet, but the tiny buds and new growth of the tress and shrubs made me giddy, and confirmed for me that Spring is here, and there is no going back, even if it snows again.

Growing up in New Hampshire I remember this time of year (which is actually a little later there) when I was little and my mom would point to the trees and said "look! the trees are budded" and she still enthusiastically points out budded shrubs in the garden.  When I was a kid, the snow cover always remained on the ground until Spring, and it was very exciting when you started hearing all that trickling of water as little streams alongside the snowbanks formed.  At first they would freeze back up and then flow again until finally it was just a constant state of trickling water and mud for several weeks.  I used to be so relived and excited when you looked out and mostly just saw bare ground, then I'd get discouraged when either on the side of the house where the sun didn't shine, or under trees you could still mounds of frozen snow.  I'd go about thinking we were all in the clear and then I'd come across one of those I hadn't seen before and get a little resentful.  I don't know why... did I think it would stay there all summer reminding me of the long, depressing winter?  Who knows, but I'm glad that now when I see remaining mounds of snow I don't mind at all.  I know summer will still come.  Even if we do get thrown into a global-warming-apocalyptic-ice-age-type situation and it does snow in July, it will still be summer and the sun will still shine from 5:00am to 9:00 at night, which will make me happy.


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 Xin Yi Hua.  Magnolia Flower. Warm, acrid and surface releasing.  Opens the nasal passages and relieves sinus headache.  It winters over on the tree and is harvested in the Spring.  It's soft and fuzzy and smells lovely. Have you seen it on the trees?