-in just spring

I love the spring. The students think I’m nuts. (Well they have more than their fair share of reasons, but my love of spring is probably at the top!) I am always spouting about buds popping and nature’s first green and getting outside for the sun and the Vitamin D and the crisp air.

And here it is. And it is nearly eight o’clock at night and I can hear the birds singing still and I am raking leaves in the half-light and smelling spring. It comes off the lake, I think, this scent. I can’t describe it in words really. Except to say that the smell in the air buoys me. I know what is coming and I drink it in with abandon.

Bring it, spring. The paper whites are one step ahead of you and the forsythia is ready to burst. That’s how I feel. Potential energy pushing so hard against my elbows and biceps and thighs. I am all pent up and have been snow-covered and cold for far too long.

I love the re-birth. And today is a big day for that. First day of the fourth quarter (really, how is that even possible?), and a clean state for all of the students. And the teacher! The beginning of spring brings the beginning of yard work, and I have a new yard this year in which to play. It will be a lot of work. And I will relish it.

And I am always reminded (although I need no special day) that I am ever changing. Spinning, growing, stretching towards the sun. Too many months and seasons and years I spent in darkness. And now I welcome the reach, the turning towards all that is bright and new and ME.