Spring, I am sure, will be extra sweet this year.
When it finally comes, that is—when the valleys here slowly turn from dull grays and browns to vibrant greens and yellows dabbed with every color in the rainbow, and the rivers turn from slate to sparkling blue.
For many, not just here but across the world, this winter has been a source of hardship, misery and despair.
While the weather in New England made for a long, cold and very stormy winter, particular across the northernmost states, it was never difficult to look around and find someone in a worse situation than most of us here had to endure.
Whether drought, forest fire, mudslide, ice storm or blizzard, the weather-related troubles we’ve seen this winter have caused people all over the planet to suffer horribly.
For those hale and hearty folk who love winter—who love the cold and even the dark of November through April, and love to play in snow and on ice—the 2013-2014 season has been an unbelievable blessing, one that’s sure to extend through many more weeks.
Snowmobile clubs and ski areas have enjoyed one of the best snow years in decades, bringing record crowds into Massachusetts and Vermont.
For winter resorts that didn’t get clobbered, sustained cold early in the season allowed for better snowmaking than ever.
Still, even people who occasionally benefit from the weather know there’s no telling what the future may bring.
For now, I’ll leave it to others to argue about if or how the worldwide community should respond to what many scientists agree is one of the predictable results of global climate change: increasingly volatile and rapidly changing weather patterns.
I’ll be busy changing with the seasons, which this year will begin with fixing my leaky mud boots and getting tick medicine on the dog and cats.
It can’t all be work and worry, either. For a while, as we move from cold to warm and dark to light, I’ll take a moment or two to enjoy the new rhythms and new chores of my day.
I’ll walk around town more often, meet up for a drink with people I haven’t seen for a while, catch an early season ball game, run in a road race or bike for charity.
I’ll get back to worrying about the weather and yelling at people who don’t see it the same way I do later. First, I need to stretch out like a cat in a sunny window and sniff the air, hoping to catch the perfect last scent of winter and the first breath of spring.
