Spring

I think spring may be my new favorite season. For some reason, despite new stresses and crazy transitions, this Spring has brought me so much joy. It's such an amazing feeling when you step outside and feel the natural warmth of the sun, and you just want to soak it up (as opposed to getting straight from air conditioning A to air conditioning B or from air conditioning to pool as fast as possible). It feels like spring is just this great medium between the annoyingly impossible-to-dress-for Texas winter (30 degrees at 8 am, 50 degrees at noon, and 70 by afternoon) and the unbearably hot summer. It's those few rare months when things are actually green, sprinklers are allowed to run, and it actually feels good to be outside. People are out walking their dogs, picnic-ing, running (without looking on the brink of heat stroke), gardening, sitting outside at restaurants. I've had non-stop sweet tea cravings, recently joined by iced coffee cravings. Snow cone places re-open, spring break revitalizes (most of us), and everything just feels fresh. I always feel more aglow and healthy when my skin emerges from its winter pallor and gains a little color. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it just plain feels good.

Summer will still be my favorite season, even as I dread the humidity of Houston. I love swimming and being tan and going to the beach and eating light summery food. But right now, I'd give anything to have more days like today. Sunny, barely 80 degrees, slight breeze. The perfect spring day. Actually, as I read my own descriptions, I have a sneaking suspicion that springtime here is similar to summer in most places north of Texas, which means my favorite season is right no matter what. Either way, spring this year is just making me feel so content and thankful for God's amazing creation.

Some of my favorite spring sitings:

- Mia playing in the puddles

- A friend's newly planted garden

- Dandelions popping up out of green grass

- Shorts and flip-flops

- People lounging on a blanket in an open field

- Baylor campus (always looks so pretty in the spring when the red brick contrasts with all the new green life)

I'm not always one for quotes, but this one sums it up nicely.

The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.

Harriet Ann Jacobs