Spring: A Reverie in Brown

I've been thinking about spring since the new year. It has been the pinpoint of light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of winter - but this past week's thaw has brought it into clearer focus. With that, it has gone from faint glimmer of hope to a source of frequent daydreams.

Oh, I love fall, too. I love her crisp, clean air, the anticipation of new things that still remains etched in my subconscious from years of following the cycles of the school year, the wood smoke in the air, and the colours in the trees. I love breaking out cozy sweaters and feeling refreshed after the steamier days of summer. I do love fall.

But spring... spring is like hearing your lover is coming back to town after a long, lonely dry spell. It really is my favourite, the feeling it brings me. Even the earliest signs of spring, with the parting of snowbanks to reveal brown muck and the long-forgotten detritus of last year, bring me a joy, a leavening of the soul that cannot be matched.

So spring - I know you are still a ways off, I am not deluded by the little break I've been enjoying - but I am reminded, as if you have visited me in a dream, and now I can't shake the ghost of that feeling that has taken root in my mind. I'm waiting, spring.