Changing in Time, by Deborah Pryce

This weekend we change our clocks to Daylight Savings Time! Many are anxious to embrace this change in time as a sign that spring is soon and finally around the corner. We hopefully, even desperately look to spring for a reprise from the cold and stormy winter. We are eager to experience the sensory overload that spring ushers in. The warming earth, the smell of spring rain and the first flowers, bursts of colour in every hue, the bluster of breezes through the opening leaves, and the delight in the taste of fresh maple syrup or the first lettuce from the garden.  Our spirits blossom with renewed energy, and we are quick to shed winters barren landscape.

Oddly, I am happy to hold on to my snowy blanket just a little longer. In a strange way I have enjoyed the storms this winter that have kept us safely burrowed in our homes waiting for the roads to be safe to travel again. We have been forced into a slower pace that allows us the opportunity to take a deep breath, catch up on sleep, focus on ourselves and family, or reflect a bit more. It can be an unfamiliar, and sometimes uncomfortable place, but if we linger long enough it can be a time of great healing and renewal.

Spring will be here soon enough with its quickened pace and urgency to soak in all the pleasures of this short, transitional season. I encourage you to join me in relishing a little longer this slower time of hibernation. Take stock, prepare and cleanse your soul, pamper your spirit and indulge just a little longer in this reflective, introspective time.  We’ll be squeezing in spring cleaning, soccer practice, planting, and hiking in the glorious spring forest soon enough.