Growing up in Western Massachusetts, I am familiar with the four seasons. I never enjoyed them more than after I moved to Tampa, Florida for two and a half long years! But the seasons are part of me and I judge the passing of time by the color of the sky, the leaves on the trees - or not - the snow on the ground, and the humidity in the air. It’s hard to forget what time of year it is when your sundress is sticking to your back or you have on so many layers it’s difficult to walk. But this year, for the first time, I fully experienced and enjoyed to the point of tears, the true and tremendous rebirth of Mother Nature with the coming of spring - maybe it was because this was my first year here and while I bought the house in July, didn’t start living here full time until October. Which meant that the view of the reservoir was unobstructed and framed with bare trees for nearly the entire time I was here, houses were visible from the road where I previously thought there was just wild land, and wearing a warm, cozy hat just seemed like a permanent part of my life.
But then, just like that, this afternoon Ariel and I were walking Jack and Lizzy down our street and it was like we were in an altered state of consciousness. The trees were breathing!! The leaves were fluttering!! The breeze was stirring!! The sun was shining!! Everything was so dazzling - so alive!! Which I guess is always the case, but it was different this time. I could really feel it. I was in the middle of something magnificent…. Something much much bigger than me. Things had come alive all around us - all of a sudden. After the long winter, it seemed hard to remember that this miracle could happen. That those trees that looked dead and were so bare for so long - that they could come back to life. And not just like, oh hi, we’re back. Like, holy shit smack you in the face with their beauty. I’d never seen greens so vivid in so many shades and variations. Everywhere you turn - green. Surrounding you. Enveloping you. So much lushness. So much abundance. Nature was not just alive, but thriving and putting it all out there for anyone to see. No one was hiding, no one was acting shy, no one was waiting for someone else to go first - each and every blade of grass, each and every leave on each and every tree was popping and owning it.