I thought I was the only one who thinks that February is the first month of Spring.
It turns out that I am not alone! In fact, I’ve seen so many names this year for what I feel in February: False Spring, Fake Spring, Spring for a Week, and my favorite: Spring of Deception!
I try to learn from my past mistakes, I really do. I now stop myself from running to the nursery on the first warm, sunny day. It’s embarrassing to see the workers look at me with pity as if to say, “Honey, not yet.” (I wrote about that here: Summoning Spring Too Early).
But, when we had a Spring-like day last week I still found myself heading outside in my shirtsleeves with seed packets and a shovel. I had a lovely time of planting whole rows of seeds and the next morning, you guessed it, FROST! A whole thick layer of it on everything. We’ll see if my seeds survive.
James 5:7 says: “Be Patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”
Oops… patiently waiting. Not one of my strong suits.
My daughter and I have found a way to help with our impatience for Spring. We order our seed catalogues early. We take our time reading them like a novel and marking down the page numbers of everything that interests us. Then, we meet up to go over our lists and our leftover seeds to see what we need. We put together a master list of things to order. This year my daughter’s 18-year-old kitty helped.
Ann Kirsten
Once the seeds do arrive, their brightly colored packets do so much to brighten up even the darkest winter days.
We then meet again and exchange seeds, splitting the ones we both wanted. It’s so much fun to see the packets spread out before us as we dream of gardens to come. It’s a great excuse to meet up, either in one of our homes or a coffee shop.
Ann Kirsten
My daughter is more of a go-getter than I am. She plans her gardens out before planting. She starts seeds indoors under grow lights and she reads the planting instructions on all of the packets. Then she gets to see the sprouts emerge from the soil no matter how cold it is outside.
Another hint for those of us who want Spring to arrive NOW is to always order some seeds that are frost resistant. Peas, lettuce and some flowers are fun to plant early and watch sprout before Spring even arrives. Right now I have a patch of chamomile just waiting for warmer days to bloom.
Whenever the rain stops I do head outdoors to rake, weed, compost, and prepare for when Spring finally does arrive. The waiting for “real Spring” is still hard. It’s a good lesson in patience (something I need to work on).
Spring is a time of rebirth. It’s a beautiful reminder of our own rebirth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Perhaps that is why I ache for Spring. That rebirth is the most important part of my life and my soul yearns for reminders of it.
“See!” The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come…” Song of Songs 2:11-12
So, another winter is here and my impatience for Spring has shown up with it. Maybe I need to change how I think about this season. Perhaps instead of “Spring of Deception” I should rename this time period “Preparing for Rebirth”.
“because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:3_4
As I wait for Spring to arrive I will rejoice in the tiny signs of it coming; little closed buds on branches, tiny shoots appearing from the soil, bright displays of seed packets in the stores and the birds flitting around my feeders preparing for their own versions of Spring.
Thank you, God, for Spring and for the lessons in patience I’m learning while I wait for it!
“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Romans 8:25
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Read more of Ann’s contributions to AllMomDoes here.
