In-between

"What's your favorite season?"

It's one of those "favorite color" "favorite food" questions that I can never answer.

Yesterday I was walking through The Oregon Garden with our roly-poly black lab. Usually I'm running, but today demanded a walk. A "slow down, take a look, stop and smell the roses" kind of walk. (okay, so my hip was hurting again.) 

It was February 1st. The calendar says winter. But all the earth around me is clearly waking up. 

It happens early in the valley. I see the buds on the camilla and the daphne. The bulbs just pushing their way through soft soil. And yesterday it was all light and life at the garden. Even the birds were singing about it.

It's not winter and it isn't spring. It's in-between. 

We may still have a flurry of snow on the horizon or another endless month of fog and drizzle, but today, spring is on its way....like Aslan on the move. 

And I realized that my favorite season is this in-between. Like the way our summer fades to fall and fall yields to winter and winter gives birth to spring. It's exciting, the change of things. The realization that this life won't always stay the same. It's sad and sweet at the same time. 

Ben turning ten this week was like the in-between to me. I see him as a boy in the shadow of a man. I look forward to the person he will become, I treasure the boy he still is. It's like an awakening...a new season of life about to begin. The calendar turns. 

I embrace it all...and I except it..gratefully.

 The ten year old in-between

The garden in-between