Spring Ahead...

If you live in New Jersey, or anyplace else affected by the polar vortex, you understand. It has, as the Beatles once sang, been a long, cold, lonely winter. But when I woke this morning to sunshine and fifty degree temperatures, I was able to imagine what it must feel like for the butterfly to emerge from its cocoon for the first time.

So with my windows rolled down, driving through Atlantic Highlands with its lofty ocean views, my the radio turned up, and no one to remind me I don't have wings, I flew for a little while.

The proof of spring's approach is also heralded this day by setting our clocks ahead one hour. While I may lament the loss of that single precious hour, I also know it will, like the ice and snow, return just as seasons do.

Truly, now is the time for new beginnings. For everything once asleep beneath the snow, or tucked inside the tall branches, to awaken.

For hope, and for possibilities.

For the first signs of new life.

Let it begin.