Just a little bit miraculous

It amazes me each and every spring how good it feels when we hit daylight savings and all of the sudden the sun is out until after the dinner dishes are washed and put away.  The neighbor kids have all emerged from their respective caves and the posse runs free once again.  There is no way I can pass by the window upstairs, catch a glimpse of litle old Meredith in the back yard, holding her own against the pack of 8 year old boys wielding wooden weapons, and not smile.  She's out there in a bright blue jacket, crazy striped tights tucked into her snow boots, blond hair flying, and I think, this is what we have been missing all winter- color.  And smells too.  Now that things are starting to thaw a bit the winter's habbit of tossing the rabbit litter box in the garden instead of the compost bin that was buried under 6 feet of snow is proving to be, perhaps, a mistake.  Unless the smell that is completely rendolent of a horse stall is something you favor.  But really, I don't care- it's a smell, proving that we are once again winning the war against ice and dark and cold. 

I've lived in a climate that doesn't change all year, and there was something great about the fact that you could go for a swim in the ocean any old day, and the sun always rose at 6 and always went down by 6:30, and everything was just so dependable, but it also lulled us into complacency.  Visitors from up north would come to our little carribean island home and gush about the sun, the sky, the palms, that blue blue ocean, and we'd say yep, it's hot, isn't it?  Here's some more sunblock and careful why don't you move back here into the shade with us?

I'm a northerner to my core- and not a bitter one either.  I bike from March til November, then trade in my bike happily for my skies, getting out there in all temps as long as there is a bit of snow on the ground.  But when it melts, and the sun comes out stronger, longer, I'm the first one to cheer.  And it is that change, that joy that comes with the warmth of the sun, that keeps me here. 

I mean, if I lived somewhere that didn't experience a freeze/thaw cycle, I wouldn't have felt such wonder and excitement at the site of a swarm of ants, coming up between the cracks in the sidewalk in front of the Y today.  Ants!  It's only 32 today and we still have 3 feet drifts of snow out front, but ants!  Yeehaw!  I bent down to check out their frantic excitement- and to be truthful, they looked to be in a panic to get back underground- like they had mistakenly come out too early- but there they were, causing me to crouch and watch and smile.  Until someone came up behind me and wondered what in the hell I was doing crouching on the sidewalk in front of the Y, but let them wonder- the ants are out! 

So even though the view from my window right now is of dirty icy snow piles that promise to linger a while longer, and the wind still has a sharp edge, I can't help smiling.  It's happened again.  Winter has been vanquished. And it feels just a little bit miraculous.