“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

A transformation does not happen overnight, and for those of us who live in a climate of four full seasons, we know they do not always segue peacefully or politely, for that matter.  The battle of cold and warm air renders the atmosphere volatile and unpredictable.  As far as I'm concerned, Warm is "good," and Cold: "evil."  So evil.

The kids tumbled into the van this afternoon, chapped faced from a stiff North wind blasting them while they endured my inching from the end of the pick-up line.  Today is the first day of Spring.  A calendar will not convince me.  Not today.

From what I understand, it was 83 degrees on this day last year.  Oh you fickle temptress, Spring!  I'm cloaked in my Sherpa and Mukluks denying an 8-day forecast with snow.  I surf the Internet for real estate in North Carolina...

I rely on warmer weather to increase the square footage of my life.  A family of six out-grows 1400 square feet in about four hours, let alone four months.  The children pine for the outdoors.  As do I.  There is little better than dining alfresco when daylight has lost intensity and shadows are long and sheltering.  When the glowing green illumination of life is still warm from the mid-day sun.  When the sky is the bluest until daylight falls to the pink horizon. The kids jump up from their half-eaten plates of pasta to run barefoot to the swing set.  And, they ascend and descend in air that tickles the back of their necks like warm puppy breath.

The best part of outdoor dining is letting the bread crumbs and rice grains and irreverent green beans fall to the ground to face nature and her many hungry appetites, and the time we save from cleaning up is spent talking and gazing at the twirling, spinning, chasing activity of the kids.

Soon, the battle will wage along a dipping and flexing jet stream, and Warm will win.  Fresh, tender green life will push up and out now with each passing day, fighting for the fullness of a beauty coming anew.  It's like a gift of life every year wrapped in blossoms and song.  This annual reminder of emerging life will arouse a desire gone dormant to regain a pulse:  beating, pumping, rushing into our very spirit.  An awakening to the damp soil and light that inspires the morning melody and activity of birds calling out for the warmth it holds.

So we wait, pacing and impatient, while nature brings to birth a miracle to warm the souls of all who shall touch it.