Seasons are Markers, The Measurements Change

This week the cherry blossoms opened in Salem.  One day they weren't open, and then the next day the twisted branches were furred in hundreds of shy pink petals.  I'm still not used to the mild winter climate here, and so I was shocked by this outrageous springtime flirt from Mother Nature.  It seemed too soon.  We never had snow. I never needed my heaviest winter coat.  But all the bursting bulbs and branches are telling me to get over it.

When I was a child, spring meant the upcoming promise of summer vacation from school, swimming trips, popsicles, eating snacks straight from the garden, and bare feet. I anticipated each upcoming season for its unique treasures and the new and exciting things that would come.  As an adult spring passes into summer and summer into fall, and instead of looking forward to what will come, I tend to worry about all the things I didn't do.  I think of all the adventures I didn't take because I needed to buy groceries, or go to work, or pay for rent instead of road-trip gas.

(Seriously, why can't it be normal in our culture for adults to have summer vacation too?)

Seasons are markers, and at some point I changed the measurements: My views shifted from looking ahead to looking back.  Instead of anticipation, I feel a heavy loss. I wonder, will I mourn my childhood for the rest of my life?  Is this something that gets better with age? Or worse?  As an adult does every season change and every birthday feel like a mid-life crisis?

I don't have a lot of answers for this, so I've decided that the best course of action is to trick my mind into turning the mundane into some moving adventure.  The truth is, it usually works for me.  It reminds me that I have so many reasons to feel gratitude.

February's "Adventures" include:

• A Yoga Class at a Brewery
• Spending two hours trying (and succeeding!) to figure out an excel formula
• Learning the definitions of the word "sonorous"
• Throwing my very first dinner party
• Getting hit on by a teenager at Jimmy Johns
• Drinking a habanero beer 
• Finishing Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian without scalping someone
• Remembering I had an Amazon gift card and spending it
• Happy Hours with new friends
• 2 for $1 chocolate cream hand-pies at Safeway

See, I feel a lot better already.