St Patrick’s Day this year marked the moment that I woke up from a long winter stupor.  The temp moved into the 50’s, there was that smell of sand and green, and people coming out of the woodwork.  It was refreshing to go outside and breathe deeply…which since my stint with walking pneumonia, was actually a moving experience…in more ways than one.  Seeing the sun, and walking outside is one of my favorite times of the year.  I don’t think most of us remember how challenging winter is until it’s just about gone.  For me its the simple things, like not being able to get up my steep driveway with the car, having to bundle up just to walk to the mailbox, the heavy clothing that fills up my laundry room, the dry air in our home that results in cracked hands and chapped lips, the dark when I leave in the morning and the dark when I come home….and worst of all the pale pallor of my complexion.  I know all of this begs the question…why live here?  I guess it’s because of those first few moments of spring when I am transformed again…and to reminded of what it is like to live without sun and green.  I guess I’m a sucker for cycles…because my second favorite time of year is in the fall, when the green edges into oranges and brown and there is a crispness in the air, and the crackle of a good fire at night.  Cycles work for me…and it keeps the people who live according to them a bit more sturdy that those in the continual warm…my opinion, I know there are plenty who would disagree with me.  The test will be when next week comes and there is a call for more snow…