I recently had to scrape the frost off my windshield. I can’t say I was surprised and I don’t know if I was disappointed. It is March and this is the game she plays with us. The temps earlier in the week were in the mid-fifties and may have gotten over sixty at one point. They were warm enough to melt a lot of the snow that was still on the ground. Now the only snow that is left are the dirty piles in the corners of parking lots.
I knew that the warmer weather from earlier in the week was not going to last so I made sure to take advantage of it while it was here. I went outside as much as possible. I went for walks in the sunshine at lunch. If I was making a phone call, I tried to do it outside to get some more of that warmth on my skin.
There is always a tipping point in winter when you finally start to break free of the cold, dark grip. I feel like the past few days were that tipping point. One morning during the warm stretch I went out to the backyard first thing in the morning to let the dog out. I stood on the back deck and listened as a robin broke into song.
The song of a robin has a distinct feel to it. That feel is warm spring weather with grass starting to green and buds coming onto the branches of trees. That was what I heard in that robin’s song on that morning.
I know that winter still has her grip. The recent morning’s frost on the windshield was a reminder. We are still in her grip but that grip is loosening.
There is a point in the spring, generally in March, where you can see the ground again after it has been hidden by the snow. That glimpse of the ground combined with the higher angle of the sun and those occasional southern breezes reminds us that we made it. We went through another winter and survived.
But I don’t want to just survive the winter, I want to live in the winter. I want to make sure that I am paying attention to what is going on outside. I want to make sure that I am paying attention to the cold on my face, and shoveling the snow in the darkness. I want to make sure I am paying attention to all of that so I can appreciate it so much more when I break through into spring.
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