When fall comes around, it holds the top spot as my favorite season, but this time of year, when spring starts, it makes a good bid for first place.

There's just something special about this time of year. The smell is clean, like the air is waking up and washing the sleep from its eyes. When you step outside, you can just feel the difference, and not just the difference in temperature (though, sometimes, there is that). Mostly the difference comes in the feeling of expectation, that sense that the possibilities are endless now that the cold of winter is over and the plants are growing again.

That's another thing I love about spring: the plants. It's so nice to see the new green shoots poking out of the ground, to see the bushes and the trees bursting into life again after the monochromatic whites and grays of winter. The color green never looks so good as on the fresh grass in spring sun.

Granted, spring has its drawbacks, such as the near-constant rain, that dampness in the ground that never seems to leave. But that's also a beautiful part of spring, I think. It's the earth washing away the cold and the dead, replacing it with warmth and life. The weather shifting from the cool, damp mornings to the bright, warm afternoons is really satisfying.

The sky takes on a new color, too. In the winter, you can almost never see the blue; clouds hang heavy over you constantly. In the spring, you can begin to see the sun again, and you can almost convince yourself that that is the bluest sky you have ever seen.

I think what I'm trying to get at is that spring is a time of possibilities and new starts. That's why spring cleaning is a thing: it's a time to get up, open the windows, and clean out the stale, recycled air you've been breathing since late November. It's a time to go outside, go for a walk, and maybe even try something new.

(Now if Persephone and Hades can stop this hot/cold relationship thing they've got going on, then spring can really get into swing.)

Go outside, enjoy the sunshine, and breathe in a bit of fresh air!