Spring - Return and Welcome!

Many people dislike winter. Up here, in the frozen North of the United States, it is very easy to frown upon winter and eagerly await its' flight. But I don't mind winter (that's not to say that I love the show shoveling, the icy driving, and the cold temperatures). I don't mind winter, because without winter I wouldn't appreciate spring nearly as much. And I LOVE spring. Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox so spring has sprung. Welcome to the first full day of spring.

Spring used to be one of the hardest times of the year. Think about it. In the fall you would put aside as much food as you possibly could. Some hunting and trapping could occur during the winter months, but not as much because of the conditions of the season. By the time of the start of spring, your put-aside foodstuffs were getting pretty lean. So you would eagerly look for the new signs of life - the new green grasses, the bird eggs, the young animals. You would selectively choose some of these so as not to deplete the species, and you would thank your gods for showing them to you, because starvation was going to occur otherwise. You had to hold on for a few more weeks before foodstuffs were more easily found and the routine of an easier life could resume again. I'm a spring baby, and I wonder if I would have been born an age or two ago when conditions of starvation in March and April might have led to death before my month of May. Something to think about as I plan my weekend trip to the local grocer. Aren't we incredibly fortunate that we aren't as dependent on living from the land and can, instead, push our energies out into more creative outlets? Happy, happy, joy, joy!