Your life in spring

“I’m in the winter of my life,” an old friend told me once. The lazy, summery days of her youth are past. The blossoms and fever that spring brings, she said, have definitely come and gone. The warm colors of autumn have just faded as her children have all grown up and left home. “It is winter,” she stressed. She was in her sixties then, I was in my early twenties. I didn’t know what to say.

That was almost ten years ago. I never forgot that conversation. It reminds me of my and my loved ones’ mortality. How utterly morbid, but it’s just one of those talks that helps inspire one to look at life from a different perspective.

Doesn’t it make you wonder? What season is your life in right now?

*****

When I was growing up, the home next to ours had a beautiful wall of bougainvilleas. The vines were thorny and woody, but the canopy of pink and magenta flowers it created was beautiful. I remember standing under the shade, waiting for the pink blossoms to fall on my shoulders when a breeze would pass by.

I was six years old and there were pink petals on my shoulders, on my hands, on my feet. It was heaven for a little girl. I still recall looking up at the sky, waiting for more flowers to touch my face.

Bougainvilleas always remind me to live the moment, to love the moment. I see those magenta blooms and I am reminded to enjoy the now as much as my six-year-old self did. Today is beautiful. Today is great. Today is spring.

Today is always spring.

*****

I think I’m in the spring of my life. A new baby and a new life path may be obvious reasons why, but I don’t think only major events should define what season your life is in. Whether big or small, everyday discoveries and continuous positivity can always make you feel you’re at the spring of your life.

The last I heard my old friend was fancying a romance with a younger man, had opened her own business and was having a blast with her grandchildren. So many roses and robins amidst the snow, if there is any snow left at all. It’s another beautiful reminder that no matter what stage your life is in, there is, and always will be, spring.

Hi! I'm Toni Tiu, and I've been blogging at at Wifely Steps since 2003. This started as a blog to help newly weds adjust to married life. It has evolved into a home and parenting blog. I write about things close to my heart -- good eats, good reads, family, marriage, and the little things that make everyday happy.