Spring Forward

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'" ~Robin Williams

Poppies!

As a Southern Californian, the season of spring isn't something for which I'm intensely familiar. 

It's not that California doesn't have seasons, it certainly does. Cooler, rainy winters give way to warmer, wildflower-filled springs. But the degree to which you really feel the seasons are not as pronounced as they are in other areas of the world. 

On my journey I got a chance to really feel it. I encountered both freezing snow and blazing sun and watched as the landscape came to life in the transition. Snowy mountain peaks gave way to bright green hillsides and baby buffalo. Frosty nights made room for pudgy waterfalls and wildflower meadows.

The desolation of winter melts away and life springs forward, literally. It’s a natural manifestation of the restart button. All that was old and dead and cold and depressing is full of life and light again.

New life grows from the earth, and if we allow it, new life can grow in our heart as well.

Of course us humans can grow, renew, and make big life changes any time we want. We just have to decide to make it so.

But the season of spring provides us with an example of how to do it. Watching the natural world grow can inspire us to grow in return. As nature sweeps out the old and the cold to make way for life, it can trigger a change in each of our spirits, bring in a sense of renewal and drive.

Watching all the beauty that nature brings each spring can remind us of what we could be doing and changing. Or what we should be doing and changing.

So let’s use that trigger. Draw on the power of nature and the power of spring to renew yourself.

New growth, new life, new you.

It's time to spring forward.