Change: An Incontrovertible Fact

March 8—and it is 52 degrees! A slight breeze but nothing that makes any demand on me as I swing along the sidewalk, and, rather than the treacherous ice patches that I have skirted for months, I am stepping over puddles caused by melting snow.

What a day! Instead of the customary thickly applied aquaphor, I have slathered sunscreen on my face—you can actually feel the sun today! No hat, no scarf, no gloves. A light jacket is all I need.

The sky is blue and cloudless. I am looking up at it and looking, too, for birds, but I glimpse nary a one. I’m thinking that they should be out there in the tops of the trees, the males singing their spring songs to beguile mates, but no such luck. Too late in the day, I suppose.

Wide splotches of wet snow and ice still weigh down decorative bushes clustered around buildings. Not until the snow melts entirely will we comprehend the extent of the foliage and tree damage near where I live.

But right now? After my spring-stepped walk? I am counting myself lucky. It’s a great day to be alive, released from the icy grip of this winter.

We kept reminding each other: “spring will come; it will. It always does!” And then that Arctic Vortex would grab us around the throat again, and we’d we unable to go out, the roads being impassable or because we were deterred by the below zero wind chills. Once more, we’d eat whatever we could out of the freezer.

It will probably snow again; it usually does in March, but never mind. Right now I am grateful for the sun on my face, for the giddy freedom of a lightweight jacket and for mud-brown puddles of snow melt. Things are changing, as they always do.

Change is the incontrovertible fact of life.  Yes. Yes. We all know that.

Nonetheless, as good as I am feeling, I think-- and wouldn’t you agree---that often, whatever the nature of the change we are seeking, it certainly can take its own sweet time in showing up?