Limbo in the Midwest

And no, I don't mean the dance....I'm referring to being caught between two different places--or in this case, two different seasons. It's late February/early March in Illinois--which means anything can happen weather-wise. And it's now that I find myself most affected by the weather. I don't want to face another cold, rainy day. I desperately want to see the crocuses bravely poking their heads above the ground. Okay, some might call this foolhardy--but I admire anything brightly colored that dares to defy the drab skies and drowned, icy ground. If only we humans were so daring.

I recall that Flannery O'Connor once called a character "stuck in neutral." How many of us are just sleepwalking through life--not noticing those crocuses, pushing down our emotions into frozen, barren ground.... It's easy just to be in stasis--like those Shakespeare characters in his comedies who only truly live when they are pushed into potentially risky relationships. By the end, they are dancing with the one they love--and with the entire community.

I need to learn to dance thus--and rediscover the spring of my spirit that has mainly been frozen during the grey skies of winter. Let the thaw begin!