even the rain can change overnight.

It's as if I'm waking from a deep sleep. I could stay very still and listen to the cats meow around, and the house creaking, and the rain outside pecking at my windows. Or, I could jump out of bed, make a fat pot of strong-ass coffee and give this day (all of these days) a fair shake. Either way, it could be beautiful.

I'm a little early, but spring's just around the bend. I have plans. I want to hike more, because they don't call it the out-of-doors for nothing. A door's better than a window, even if a window's better than a wall. There's something about the trees and a lesser-trod path that makes you feel like you're a pioneer. I say this now, where I used to prefer spring walking around a city full of walls and windows taller than any tree could endeavor to grow, in fact where trees are somewhat scarce, except where they've been transplanted from faraway places. I could reference more than one point here, but that only leads me back to nostalgia. I'm not going to talk about spring and talk about nostalgia at the same time. They're not going to meet in the middle today, because memories can sometimes foil even the best laid plans.

I'm not saying that I'm starting anew, because I've grown enough to know that when it comes to this love, ain't no such thing as a do-over. I meant to write "this life," but for as much as I've practiced thinking before I speak, I'm not exempt from the occasional Freudian slip. But guaranteed, there's always another spring for as long a life as we're allowed. Always.

So few things are like that. Always. I like the way the word sounds, though I'm wary that I'll mix it up with memory.  I might have, at times. I like things I can count on, and I'm not counting on winter to make me see anything in a new light. I could count on fall, except just by definition, I don't think it's going to pull me out of a rut. Summer's nice, too, but so often the air becomes thick and stifling. Spring, though. It can bring so much.

I don't know if anyone else appreciates that like I do. Frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn. I'm just in it for the oxygen. Without it, none of this could happen.