Spring arrives on March 20 and, for many of us, it can’t come soon enough. With longer days and warmer temperatures, spring marks a time of growth and renewal in nature. The fallow becomes fertile again as trees regain their verdant foliage, flower bulbs planted (and often forgotten) in fall make their first surprising appearance, and birds begin to build nests for their young.
We feel the impact of the approaching season, too. Our dormant social and creative energies may return after a long winter spent mostly isolated and indoors. Spring cleaning invites us to throw open the windows and enjoy the freshness of the season, while early gardening allows us to reconnect with nature. The season, perhaps more than any other, is also a time that brings a sense of anticipation that can inspire us to commit to new goals and new beginnings. For those of us longing for spring, these quotes can help us remember that it’s closer than we think!
No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.
— Hal Borland, journalist and naturalist
Spring comes: the flowers learn their colored shapes.
— Maria Konopnicka, poet
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, / If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
— Percy Bysshe Shelley
Spring has returned again. The earth / is like a child who’s memorized / poems; so many… it was worth / the long painful lesson: she wins the prize.
— Rainer Maria Rilke, poet
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
— Margaret Atwood
I want / to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.
— Pablo Neruda
She turned to the sunlight / And shook her yellow head, / And whispered to her neighbor: / “Winter is dead.”
— A.A. Milne
I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.
— Ruth Stout, gardener and author
Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”
— Robin Williams
Every Spring is the only Spring, a perpetual astonishment.
— Ellis Peters, author
The spring came suddenly, bursting upon the world as a child bursts into a room, with a laugh and a shout and hands full of flowers.
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
First a howling blizzard woke us, / Then the rain came down to soak us, / Now before the eye can focus — / Crocus.
— Lilja Rogers, poet
Photo credit: Mira Drozdowski/ Shutterstock
