The ice and snow of the past season melt slowly, opening paths we have avoided through the winter or passed over anyway.

The ritualistic sounds of Canada Geese returning home become more obvious each day.

We pull lighter jackets from the back of the closet and might not even bother with winter mitts and hats.

Our landscape’s lifeless trees now seem to offer possibility as we wait for buds to form, the appearance of leaves, and then the full-on foliage of the canopy that will shelter us from summer heat still months away.

We notice these habitudes and happenings.

We follow these patterns like a promise.

Spring itself is a promise. Hinting of better days ahead, more daylight and an increase in temperatures, there is a resolve to make us feel better about ourselves.

Spring, right now, is the promise we need.

j.g.l.