Spring Reopening

What’s your dream?

Small green and red shoots poke up here and there in my garden. After a long winter, they announce a change of season. Over the last four months, they’ve been resting underground, waiting for their time to push up and out. And, as March winds down, a signal seems to have gone out over the landscape: it’s now time.

All photos by Rachel Shenk

I feel it also as I wander through my backyard, hands reaching down to pull up weeds, eyes trained on the ground for tiny starts. The air seems balmy after the last few days of cold, biting wind. Songbirds tweet above me as they flutter from branch to branch. There is change. There is hope.

Winter seemed to last longer this year. Maybe because of extended cold temperatures, maybe because I had six weeks of radiation. I stayed in my own winter world, relishing the hours snuggled in blankets, reading. Or standing by the warm oven as breads and casseroles baked. I needed the extra protective layers that winter brings.

But now, all that is behind me. The shift is happening. The world is turning green. It’s all about opening up, stretching out, standing tall and starting over again. Now is the time for new plans and growing them. The seeds of dreams planted in the dark of winter now see the longer daylight of spring. And they’re ready to develop.

At our house, that means changing a few things in our backyard. There’s flagstones to lay and a sauna to build. Yes, one of our winter dreams focused on a sauna. I’ve been meeting monthly with two other women for about two years now for a sauna night. Since none of us has a sauna, we went to a friend’s house until the day he moved and sold his house. Lately, we have been using another friend’s sauna. But, slowly but surely, an idea planted itself. Maybe we could build our own. So if spring is truly on its way, it’s time. Stones to lay, walls and benches to build, a roof, a heater. Maybe by the end of the summer, our seed will come to fruition. It won’t be the first time we’ve made dreams come true.

And that’s the thing with spring. Ideas that seemed insurmountable in winter take on a whole new view when the sun shines warm and the birds sing and the world reopens. All of a sudden, there’s new life breathing into me and nothing seems too impossible. I’ll ride that spring optimism as long as I can.