My Favorite Day of the Year

Some people love their birthday (okay, almost everyone loves their birthday). Others love Halloween, or Christmas, or Thanksgiving. I don't have a have a favorite date. I have a favorite day, it just happens to change from year to year.

My favorite day usually happens around the beginning of March, though it can occur as early as late February. On this day, it's cold when I wake up in the morning. I dress warm, because it's still winter. I put on my leather jacket (because I'm much too stylish to wear an actual winter coat) before heading out to my car. I can see my breath as I walk outside. I walk into school or work, thankful to be out of the cold, and then think nothing more of it.

But then, when it's late afternoon and I walk back out, that's when I discover that this day is my favorite day. It's not frigid anymore, and while it's not exactly warm, if I have a sweater on, it just might be warm enough to take off my jacket. The sidewalks are wet from the melting snow, and as the snow banks recede, I can see the mud along the edges where grass was torn up from shovels, snow plows and snowblowers. The sun is high in the sky and bright. I squint from the glare of sunlight off the remaining, still deep snow.

Often, there is a soft breeze, and on that breeze I can smell spring coming- the faint, sweet stench of rotting leaves that were never raked and the freshness of the trees and flowers those leaves nurture.

Carried on that breeze, too, are whispers of the sounds of spring. I can almost hear the honks of geese returning, the delicate chirps of the songbirds coming out to play again. I know in just a few short weeks I will hear the slaps of children's feet running across pavement, their voices as they scream and laugh. I'll hear the thuds of basketballs and the clatter of skateboards. Not quite yet, though. It's not the first day of spring, but it is the first day of the transition.

That's what I love about that day. It signifies moving forward. It signifies change. It signifies hope; after a long, cold winter, things are going to get better. It signifies life.