Spring Has Sprung

“In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours”, Mark Twain. If, like me, you have suffered through these past few weeks then the quote from Samuel Clements (Mark Twain) surely hits close to home.

We live in one of those areas where the weather is as up and down as gas prices are from town to town (still can’t figure out why gas is 30 cents or so higher or lower in other communities as I drive around?). This was one of those winters whereby I thought we were going to make it un-scathed. Truth is I think my brain fooled me into thinking that it might just be possible to make it all the way into March without a significant snow; then February rolled around and all heck broke loose…and the train wreck that followed was one I’d rather not been a part of.

On the other hand ever notice how much talk is about the weather? “Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation”, Kin Hubbard. Honestly, it seems like all we get done at my household is plan and talk about the weather. I’m just not sure what our forefathers did back in the day? To some degree I think we are miserable because we know exactly what, when and how much is coming! To once again quote Twain, “Everyone talks about the weather…but no one does anything about it”.

My hope for all of us is that as you are reading this edition of The Journal…you can do so with your feet propped up on your front porch and the sun smiling down on you. For sure we are due some better days; days with fishing, hiking, hunting and smiling. Fewer days with a snow shovel or ice scraper attached to our hands.

We officially ‘sprang forward’ this past Sunday and have now moved that hour of daylight later in the day. It probably doesn’t seem like much now, but in just a few more weeks we might actually be catching a fish or playing a round of golf as we near 9pm and for that…I am indeed hopeful.

Now…just so you’ll know-spring officially begins this year on Friday, March 20 at 6:45pm EDT. Just think…90 days of rain, green grass, flowers, thunderstorms, mushrooms, turkey hunting, hikes, fly fishing, crickets and the list goes on and on…in fact, hope is a good thing and at this point you can simply fill in your list of ‘hopeful’ spring things. My guess is that God intentionally left us with very short memories for many occasions…but certainly for dealing with the weather. In spring, no one thinks of the snow that fell just a few days earlier.

For me it is a time of re-birth; spring means hope. I simply love to take walks and as I do I pay attention to small, maybe even inconsequential elements of the natural world we live in. Somewhere under all this snow are crocuses and other spring flowers eking their way upward, ready to explode in their best dress. One of my all-time favorite outdoors authors is Aldo Leopold, who has this to say…”There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.” Most folks know which side of this quote they fall on?

I hope that over these next few days and weeks you can appreciate more than the simple fact that you aren’t moving snow around. Take time to ‘smell the roses’. Spring is a period of time that falls between the cold of winter and the heat of summer. It is a perfect time for a hike with that special person you love. We are blessed to live in a period of time that has waterproof boots, hats, shirts, etc…so even if it is a bit raw you can still stay warm and comfortable in the elements and the changing weather of our greenest season.

“One swallow does not make a summer, but one skein of geese, cleaving the murk of a March thaw, is the spring”, Aldo Leopold. Get up, get out and get going. You need a real pick-me-up when things seem pretty dismal…take a walk in nature, I know you will Enjoy the Great Outdoors.