Turning the corner on winter

I know there are plenty of really important things to write about today, like health care reform, a new energy plan, the economy, the Academy Awards, and family stuff -- among lots of other things -- but again today I turn my attention to the climate of Ohio. It’s just that it’s springtime here. Spring -- the time of year that gives hope to the hopeless like nothing else I know. And, oh my, is that ever worth writing about.

One of the reasons I really like spring, I think, is because my birthday falls just at its cusp. Although it is so much more than that. This part of the world reaches vernal equinox around March 21 (this year March 20). We have a few weeks to go before we get there, and there is no guarantee we won’t get more snow before we do. We can handle that. We’ve had more than one year when Easter eggs nested in residual snow in the back yard.

But as today’s title states, we have turned the corner on winter because of the last five days we’ve lived through: We’ve had sun. For five straight days. And that even includes a rainy interlude that started last night at dusk that brought us a mildly foggy sunrise. But by mid-morning, fog has dissipated and the sun is back. Oh, my.

One of the hardest things about winter in these parts is the cloud cover. It seems that from Thanksgiving on, we wake to gray skies every single day. And, oh, how that weighs on the psyche. Gray, gray, gray. And the furnace running. Cold. Gray. Depression could ask for no greater logo than a winter day in Ohio.

But with bright sun and high blue skies these past five days, and over a weekend to boot, one can feel in his or her bones that things have changed. At 6:30 pm, evening gloaming is still out there beyond our windows. At Christmas, it’s dark by 5:30. And even for us retired slugs who stay in bed until 7:30 am, sun is now streaming in the bedroom window by then. Oh, what a difference that makes. Daylight savings comes upon us next weekend and we’ll lose that morning edge on the sun for a time, but that also means that 6:30 pm sun will linger until 7:30.

Such could be another definition of hope.

Today’s elder idea:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all...

Emily Dickinson