A Deer Will Set Its Hoof Down...

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Today was downright Spring-like. Notice my restraint: Spring-like. But it was pretty close to the real thing. The temperature was pushing 50, the sun was shining, the snow was receding into invisibility.

I saw this track and was struck by the green blades remaining among the winter-killed grass. It made me wonder when Spring actually arrives, whether there is a moment when the balance reaches the tipping point and Spring springs into being. We label the equinox as the "first day of Spring," and we can set that celestial moment to the second. But that seems too scientific, too arbitrary, too convenient an explanation for such a Mystery as Spring.

I don't know when it will happen--nobody does. But I know it will happen, and soon. A deer will set its hoof down in Winter and draw it forth into Spring.