Season of Hope

If I had a favorite season, it would be spring.  There are things I truly love about each season.   Spring just has so much to love.  Even with the ground and everything else covered with FEET of snow, I felt spring yesterday. The vernal equinox was 12:15 PM.  I was at a meeting of a Maine Lung Cancer Coalition advisory group when spring began, but two hours later as we stepped outside into the sunshine, even surrounded by parking lot snowbanks, I felt spring and breathed a big sigh of relief. Phew, I made it, made it to spring.  I bet lots of animals have that thought, perhaps not at the moment , but later, when the snows melt and the trees leave.

Sigh of relief?  Made it? You see, many years ago my grandmother pointed out that more people die in winter and she said if she made it to spring, she’d go a while longer.  She nearly made it to 100.  This was my third big sigh of spring relief.  The first in 2016 I was just 18 days into my first targeted therapy treatment and knew from how I felt that it was working.  Huge sigh of relief.  I would conquer the beast inside my body certainly long enough to enjoy another spring. Today I’m feeling pretty darn good, in great shape for the shape I’m in. The beast is once again contained by the targeted therapy drug Lorlatinb.

I love all the things in nature in spring like most people do who are lucky enough to notice, from the smell of the mud to hearing new songs each morning and evening.  There’s so much to see and look forward to.  Everything seems new or renewed, just born or re-born. My babies are spring babies.  For all beings, I think it must be the season of hope, spiritually and physically.

Today memories of “springs past”, sprang into my head.  Ha! True though.  Memories like the leaves in front of me as I crossed the Waldo-Hancock bridge for years daily, first simply appearing and then over weeks changing their shades of green . There’s really nothing else like spring green. Dan’s grandmother’s joy in attending Easter sunrise service and breakfast with her great-grandchildren, so sweet. Then there’s the Easter 55 years ago (give or take a year or two) when we camped out in the woods behind our house. Easter Bunny didn’t know what to think.  I think it really happened, my younger brother wouldn’t remember because I was the baby then. I do remember that. Or the April 42 springs ago, that my “ready to be born” daughter nearly jumped out of my body when the engine of the Patty P II, her grampa’s boat, was started for the first time ever.  A few days after that we went on a rough road to go “alewiving” (alewife the fish) to see if we might jiggle her out.  Spring memories.

In recent years a great memory maker is our now annual family weekend at  Spencer Pond Camps , off the grid  wilderness lakeside cabins in the Moosehead region of Maine.  Dan, me, our children and their spouses, and our five grandchildren fishing, hiking, bike riding, kayaking, moose spotting, toasting marshmallows and playing games in the evening, and even relaxing in the porch swing.  So many memories.  Moving to our Salt Pond camp, now even more exciting with Dottie and Matilda, the Nigerian Dwarf goats, riding along.  The year we lived at camp I saw the return of ducks and other migrating birds.  Closing my eyes, I see spring sunrises from the Salt Pond to Grand Canyon. Spectacular, all. Planting the garden, and patiently (or maybe not) waiting for something, anything to come up.  Dan working on his lobster boat and traps, readying them for another year.  Every spring for about 46 years.  Picnics at the boatyard during April vacation.  Memories.  And new spring traditions. Last year was my first spring Big Night, the first rainy evening in April when  the salamanders cross the roads and people go out and help assure their safe crossing.  Quite the phenomenon!  A fun time and I hope we helped the little guys out.  Started a phenology journal so I can follow the changes from year to year.  So many memories.

Watching the goldfinches acquire their gold today (you can almost see it happening), I think of watching Mr. and Mrs. Merganser the spring we lived at camp.  How beautiful and  how different he looked from Mama Merganser and her babies in summer. Spring memories.  Looking forward to seeing the snowshoe hares in the field soon.  And baseball and softball.  Lots of memories to make.  Looks like a busy spring for this Gramma.

Time to re-hibernate and rest up – there’s more snow on the way.   Reminds me of the April snowstorm in 1975 when I was stranded on a hill in Orland.  Out of the blinding snow appeared the dad of my best childhood friend.  Hadn’t seen him for a decade, and there he was to rescue me.

Here in our winter home on the mountainside, finding joy in the everyday every day with Dan, the family, our three little dachshunds, and Dottie and Matilda, our Nigerian dwarf goats.  Dreaming of springs to come.