Spring

Today is an odd day. I still have problems getting my head wrapped around the weather here. The daffodils, tulips and croci (is that a word?) are up and look beautiful. Various trees are blooming in bright Easter egg colors. The pinks and purples delighting the kids and announcing at long last that spring is here, that winter has passed. The sky is a bright clear blue one minute and a drizzly gray the next, as if she's staring deeply into her closet and can't quite decide what to wear. I discover that 50 degrees is indeed "warm."

That all of us need winter coats and summer coats. A development that took even me by surprise. Summer coats? I have embraced a swift appreciation for polar fleece.

And I have discovered that I hate, hate, hate, cold rainy days. LLBean is going to put me on a watch list, I'm sure, for I ruthlessly take advantage of their return policy as I constantly change my mind about the perfect raincoat. I can't quite bring myself to buy an umbrella. Those seem permanently reserved in my mind for hot, sweltering market days. Who ever thought it a good idea to use such a device to block the rain? The accompanying wind surely renders them useless for this purpose as I watch countless pedestrians struggling to pull their umbrellas back into shape. No, it is obvious that the umbrella is a sun blocking device and I refuse to enter the insanity that would have me use one otherwise. Instead I try on coats in various lengths, with various closures, made from various plasticky materials. I splash through the puddles, after my gleeful children and try to remind myself that this outpouring of God's provision results in the beautiful pop of color in the dripping trees we pass. I try to embrace the diversity of weather, the consistent inconsistency of seasons... the drama of it all. I lament at times this need to adjust, and sigh wistfully for the days of hot, hot weather. When the rain brought nothing but relief and was warm.
My life is different now. The equatorial routine of equal days and nights replaced by wide swings in sunset and sunrise. New Hampshire is high enough and east enough to make the swing ever more shocking than North Carolina. This winter, we no longer felt jet-lagged when it got pitch dark by 4:20, but the rapid swing to so much daylight now does tend to make one feel topsy turvy.
I realize that we have been here long enough to experience all the seasons... spring being the last, before we come full circle to summer and our arrival here last year. And I am reminded that I need to "get a stick on" applying to Gordon-Conwell Seminary. It has been an adjustment year for us all, and while I enjoy endlessly ordering lectures from Regent and reading various books about Chruch History, it is time to make the grand leap back into school. Back into being a student and having deadlines and projects and papers to write. I turn 38 this week and I still haven't figured out what I want to do when I grow up. I am hesistantly delighted that this season of life involves scratching the deep itch of my mind and being open to where that will lead.
For now, I throw on a summer coat and head out the door into the brisk air of New England to enjoy the bright, blue sky.