silver white winters that melt into spring...these are a few of my favorite things

Oh how I am loving spring! The older I get, the sappier I get about things like the seasons changing. The way all of creation is on a rhythm each year and how there is so much joy that we can receive from it. Well, except summer, which I often mention in my posts as my least favorite time because of the hotness of it. (Sorry to keep repeating myself on that matter!)
I am sad about the fact that I missed so much of the seasonal stuff by living in Florida for 25 years and my kids grew up with nary a blossoming dogwood tree or fall colors. Of course I know that we were there for a reason and a season and if anything, I appreciate what many can take for granted now,living in a climate that changes every three months.
This winter was a cold one here in Alabama, with a snow that stayed on the ground for almost a whole week in January. Me and my daughter and friend watched out the window for hours before the forecast finally came true and a porch party with a fire pit burning and hot dogs and marshmallows ensued. When the snow began to stick, the outside world, even in darkness began to glow. A warm, soft, silent glow that made me think that I had never seen such a beautiful sight before. Even after succumbing to the cold and retreating inside, periodic trots to the back door and front door were to check the progress and look at how sweet the flakes looked falling in the glow of the porch lights. Then we would turn the inside and outside lights off and see how nicelythe snowfall looked against the evening shadows.
Endorphins released in my body during that night giving me a warm happy feeling inside. Snow is just so pure and silent and covers all the drab and ugly places, the great equalizer.

'' Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.''
Psalm 51:7

When spring began to awaken the trees and plants, everything took on a new and joyful pace. Robins eagerly searching for the worms, cardinals flitting about more lively, mockingbirds seemed to be smiling as they flitted their wings in the puddles in the gutters. Sitting on the front porch again, feeling the cool breeze, it seemed like the world had just arose from a long slumber and was happily getting on with the fun things in life.
I have never lived where there were so many flowering trees and shrubs before. Not in New York or Pennsylvania or Florida. Here there are forsythia, dogwoods, cherry trees and pear trees to name a few. And they all bloom at different times so that we can enjoy it's beauty over a period of time rather than just one big explosion of color that is here today and gone tomorrow.

And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

Here's to hoping that spring will enliven your heart and release those endorphins whenever you feel the breeze or smell a flower!