Without winter, we would not appreciate spring

Without the ugly, there is no beautiful.

Thank you God, for creating a planetary weather system to give us early spring days that feel glorious and make me happy to be alive and feeling the sunshine! If our weather was always the same year-round, would we relish the warmth of the sun as the snow melts from our lawns and our hearts?

While I love the autumn and the summer (the winter is just OK with me), this early part of the spring in Nova Scotia is my favourite time of year. We are blessed with a gift of a warm sunny day, or even a cool sunny day. Yes, I will take the mud on my shoes and the uncertainty of how to dress when we go out, for the surprise that we can strip down to shirtsleeves in the park and breathe fresh air without our nostrils freezing shut and eyes watering from the sub-zero wind.

After being cooped up for months, we can finally stretch our limbs and remember what it is like to enjoy nature without the silent sheath of snow deadening our feelings, our footfalls, our fingertips.

OK, I'm going to stop now. I can't top that last bit of poetic alliteration.

P.S. Apparently, Anne Bradstreet felt the same as I do about spring:

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”