Spring has sprung! I truly love the resurrection of spring. I love it’s beginning more than the beginning of a new year. Spring offers more anticipation and more expectation than our own unfulfilled and often selfish new year’s resolutions. I write about this magnificent season in my memoir, Island Girl: A Triumph of the Spirit:

“Located halfway between the equator and the north pole in the Atlantic time zone, Prince Edward Island experiences a wide range of seasonal changes all of which are unfailingly beautiful. Spring has its particular magical elements, arriving around the first of April. The deep snows begin to melt and soften the ground. The large icebergs in Malpeque Bay and other inlet bays, along with the gray seals that frolic and sun themselves on these icebergs, depart. Frothy ocean whitecaps that had been hidden by great sheets of ice can be seen rising and falling once again in a comforting rhythm on the horizon. The muddy red soil releases its heavy moisture with help from the spring breezes and the warming sunshine. As leaves begin to emerge on the fruit trees  and the apple orchards fill out with blossoms, robins and other flying creatures return to find their ritual nesting places.”

After being shut in all winter, the Islanders find the burst of activity around the community inescapably contagious. Fishermen load their freshly painted and repaired boats with traps and other gear anxiously awaiting the imminent start of the lobster season. Each one hoping the season will produce enough income for his family for an entire year.

Farmers, their lives having been slowed to a crawl by the heavy winter weather, begin to plough their fields, leaving trails of dust amidst unspoken prayers for a productive growing season. Barking dogs chase anything that moves, including the farmers on their tractors.

Homeowners, especially those in the tourist industry who have converted their homes to a Bed and Breakfast (B&B), dig deep into rigorous spring-cleaning activities preparing for the hoped-for onslaught of summer tourists.

Shopkeepers daily sweep the entrance to their store-fronts and holler at passers by enticing them to come see the new merchandise.

Children, having shed their heavy winter coats and boots, run and play with a newly found sense of freedom, excitement, and foolhardiness. Parents and teachers can hardly contain the children and send them outdoors to expend their energy.” (Excerpt from Island Girl: A Triumph of the Spirit, Chapter 2)

The imagery of spring in this excerpt is one of hope and renewal. We can all have this newness each and every day when we seek and find a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You see it is only in Christ that God makes all things new; that His mercies are fresh and new each and every morning; and that all the “gray” in our spirits disappear like the gray seals on melting icebergs. In other words, God cleans out the cobwebs and makes us more like His Son.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” 2 Corinthians 4:16 (NIV).