Is it Spring Yet?

I have wanted very much for autumn to stay, but, alas, winter is swiftly approaching. The glorious fall colors are fading fast and the bare shivery tree limbs are taking their place. And it's getting dark at 4.30pm, which is almost unbearable to me. If I had one wish right now it would be to skip winter. I mean, just skip right over it into springtime. Glorious spring.

Then again, I didn't even really know what spring was until I had my first real winter in Oxford. I spent almost 4 months trudging several miles a day through rain, snow, and cold, so when spring showed up I really knew it was there. One day I was walking through the park on my way to the library when I suddenly noticed yellow...flowers! It was like an epiphany: "Oh, so this is spring. I see." It was so life-giving to watch the trees begin to blossom, the flowers to bloom, the heavy coats to disappear. Ah, spring. It was like that scene from The Chronicles of Narnia in which Aslan brings the winter-cursed Narnia back to life: like God's breath had melted all the snow and brought flowers straight up from the earth in a whole palette of brilliant colors. Magnificent. I certainly left England on a happy note.

So Winter. Here it comes. Cold, dark, windshield-iced winter. But after winter has its frosty stay, the earth will wake up again, the flowers will put on their tutus and prance in the sunshine, the world will be bright and beautiful and eager once more.

And so will my little Floridian heart.