Katie’s Musings: Spring Apr 6, 2017 | News Spring is here. In the grand scheme of “favorite seasons” spring ranks pretty high on the list. My love of spring doesn’t quite reach the level of the love I feel for fall – as you may recall, I devoted an entire article to my love of fall last year. Unfortunately, my allergies and the necessity for spring cleaning prevent me from reaching that level of adoration. But Spring is pretty cool. Way better than summer or winter. One of the reasons I love spring is similar to one of the reasons that I love fall: it’s a time of transition. What has been diminishes, making room for what could or will be. There’s a robin’s nest in the courtyard outside my office window, and occasionally I’ll catch glimpses of the robin responsible for it, checking out its territory. The daffodils in the courtyard have bloomed, already showing signs of fading with time and age. The buds on the tree are peeking out, swaying in the wind and praying that a late frost or snowstorm won’t wipe them out. It’s Nebraska. You never know about those things. The difference is in the color palette. Fall is red, golden, deep and crisp, apples and pumpkins, heavy warm coats, beauty that comes with saying farewell and letting the old slip away. And I needed that in the fall. But spring is all green and fresh, promise and possibility, a season of new beginnings and florals, the sweet relief of sunshine after some dreary, dry months. And rain, glorious rain, drenching everything in its past, washing away the long winter months. And I need that this spring. I find God to be really hard to miss in the spring. When you think about it, from a self-help standpoint, the Liturgical year between Christmas and Easter is pretty smart, particularly for those of us in the temperate parts of the northern hemisphere. Start the cold winter with family, a baby, presents, and a party, drudge your way through some dreary winter, take Lent to sort through your own muck of existing, to really feel it, and just when it’s starting to get to be TOO dreary and TOO somber, the sun begins to peak through a bit, the buds pop out on the trees, the flowers flower, and boom, EASTER. An excuse to begin again. To start over. To reinvent and reimagine. To seek and find beauty in all things brand spankin’ new. New life from the ashes.
