Its been a week of gloom and doom around here but its time to look on the positive side, after all while its easy to sit around and feel sorry for myself, truth is my life could be a whole lot worse. I got an email a few days that brought this home quite clearly, a woman I know but not well was just diagnosed withbreast cancer. Thing is we are similar in age, have kids in the same age range and are walking a similiar path in life with regards to our faith. She is actually one of the ministers at our church and we have talked briefly about my thoughts on going to seminary (I will share more on this later), in some ways she reminds me of myself. Which is why I was stunned to hear she is battling cancer, yet she wrote an amazing letter to our congregation that was filled with such an upbeat spirit that I must admit it made me feel bad about bitching about my life recently.
After all, as far as I know I am in in good health as are my immediate family members. I have a roof over my head, no utilities have been turned off, plenty of food in the house, car is running and the Spousal Unit and I do have jobs. Yeah, we may make less than we used to or less than we think we need but our needs are getting met.
So in the spirit of looking on the bright side, lets talk about Spring in Maine. First off there is no real spring, instead we have Mud Season…see it snows forever in Maine, shit, it may be April here but snowstorms in Maine in April are not unusual..in fact the first year here I was stunned to see so much snow. Thing is when its not snowing during spring, all the snow that has been piled up in the yard since December is only now finally melting thus creating a muddy effect otherwise known as Mud Season. I was just walking in my yard yesterday and my feet just sank into the mud…fun times.
Bright side though is that the birds are chirping and thanks to my neighbors bird feeders, I get to hear plenty of birds, I must admit the birds are far prettier than the flying rats (aka pigeons) I grew up with in Chicago. Of course this year, we have a new addition to the backyard wildlife, the arrival of a possum. A nice ugly looking beast though it seems they are harmless…I do wish it would get the hell out of my yard.
Other signs of spring include the opening of all seasonal businesses such as the local clam shacks and ice cream stands…nothing like homemade ice cream.
Anyway there are plenty of signs that spring is here including the thick rolling fog that prior to Maine, I had only seen in San Francisco though this fog at times is scary. Think a Stephen King novel, and you can imagine the fog here.
So happy Friday, happy Spring and what signs of Spring are you seeing in your area?
