5 Great Ways to Experience Spring

Today as I write, I look outside and see brown. Everywhere brown. There is something about this time of year and the oft-times biting cold and lingering darkness that makes me yearn for the blue skies and green grass of summer. Green. Yes, what I long for is green to come from the brown.

a sweet reminder of Spring, last Spring in our yard

Spring happens to be my favorite season. Not for the wind and rain and cold and dark, but for the newness of it all. Rebirth. The Reawakening of everything brown that brings back the green. The verdant beauty waiting just beneath the surface of the brown sticks and rustling dead leaves. Renewal.

I once heard this: “If we live to be 100 years old, we will have only experienced Spring 100 times” … if we’re paying attention. That quote always brings me back to this season with wide eyes. In only weeks I’ll be looking out at flowers and hummingbirds and butterflies. By the way the deadened world looks now, it seems impossible. But it will come. Something bigger is at work, right before our eyes. Spring.

My life always fills up and brims over with busyness, so unless I am intentional I will miss this rebirth we call Spring. So, to help me remember to watch and be on the lookout for the miracle of Spring, I’m listing 5 Great Ways to Experience Spring. This year, I want to turn my busy days into the grand experience they can be, days that can be savored. Here are five simple ideas:

1. One time each day, pause and look—really look—at the landscape, and note what has changed from the day before.
2. Take a walk through someplace wild—it could be the backyard, or a park, or an open field. Not only see what is around, but feel it as well in fresh smells and popping colors floating on the breeze.
3. Plant some flowers. Pansies are cheery reminders of spring with their colorful faces and sweet disposition, but any flower will do. Try a pot for simplicity’s sake, or take on a more ambitious endeavor, but the process of growing something brings Spring near.
4. Stop and take notice of blooms as they unfurl their splendor for the world, and cut a bouquet to bring indoors. Tulips, daffodils, lily of the valley, peonies, iris … an endless parade of Spring beauties wait outside laden with fragrance to be enjoyed.
5. Pull out the camera and capture a photo or two of a Wow moment—that moment when you see something new and its beauty takes your breath away. Somehow, capturing something through a lens makes the experience richer, into one that can be shared.

Today I am ready for the reawakening of Spring. It is a new month, a new week, and a new day. A new season. I’m ready for the reawakening to occur within me.

This year, Spring arrives as it does every year, pushing out the brown and ushering in the green.
… Only 100 times …