My husband swears he spotted the first robin of spring, but it was probably just an ice mirage or snowblower fatigue.
An elderly couple squinting out their kitchen window might have seen me as a sign to put away the rock salt as I huffed and puffed up an old regular hill on Sunday, red-faced and at it again. It was the first time I’d run in over a month and only the fourth time since December 1st. (observation: running apps are really good for self-flagellation)
I know some people stuck to their routines and even went so far as to compare running in freshly fallen snow to a jog along the beach, but screw those people. Once I saw this, I figured taking an unplanned hiatus was one of the healthiest things I did all winter.
Winter is on its way out. I didn’t want to say it before, but it’s true and not just because my husband hallucinated a robin. It’s getting lighter earlier and dirty snow mountains are slowly but surely returning to parking spots at local malls.
This winter reminds me of one I wasn’t sure I’d survive 9 years ago. It had snowed early and often and I was stuck at home with a toddler while my husband traveled a lot. I decided to look for a job for a variety of reasons and remember driving past a guy navigating his red mountain bike around glaringly bright mounds of snow on my way to an interview for a job I really wanted.
I don’t have a picture, but just imagine him…
It was crazy magic seeing my first burly, bicycle-riding robin of spring that year, and even though I never got that job, a couple months later I got an even better one. Spring came on schedule and then summer, and so on.
As we all strike back out and resume old routines that serve us well, maybe you will become somebody’s robin.