It’s springtime in Boston again. The trees are all starting to bloom along Bay State Road and in the back neighborhoods of Brookline. The Red Sox are finally back home and playing at Fenway Park and the streets are full of the familiar red shirts and white jerseys that signify the return of the baseball season. Blue and yellow flags are waving from every lamppost, and on what feels like every billboard in the city are big logos that say “Run Boston” or “Boston Strong.” It’s officially spring, and with the turn of the season, I’ve started to feel a familiar sense of hope.
Credit: Boston Discovery Guide
With the return of spring comes the return of one of Boston’s greatest prides, fresh off a championship.
The winters are hard, and if you ask any Bostonian they’ll probably groan over the February sludge and what feels like eternally gray skies. The cold dries out your hands, it’s already dark when you leave your mid-afternoon classes, and forget being able to not look like the Michelin Man in your parka every time you walk outside. For me especially, the months of December through mid-March have historically been a rough time. Bad things will happen and for whatever reason, I have trouble convincing myself that things will, or can get better. That’s the time of year that I have to really take it day-by-day, reminding myself that “this too shall pass,” even if I don’t believe it at that moment.
Then one day, something will change. Subtly, but it will. This year, it was when I decided to go on a run because I had too many thoughts in my head and didn’t know how else to try to quiet them. I was running down Comm. Ave, past Newbury Street, and I stopped for a second, looked up, and saw the first hint of blooms on a tree. It was small, but it was there – the promise of renewal.
Here is live footage of what I probably looked like ogling over one small bloom.
Weeks have passed since then, and every day I see more blooms, more confirmations that no matter how hard the season before was, the flowers will find a way to grow again. In the white jerseys, I see the immense pride and love that this city holds, and in the “Boston Strong” posters I see the strength in the face of adversity that’s inspired me since I was little. We may have hard winters, yes, but we only have them because we can handle them. Part of the reason spring seems so sweet is that we’ve sloughed through sludge for it. Maybe it’s silly, but reminding myself of that is what helps me when I feel like I’m fighting a million battles at once.
Credit: Boston Globe
(This is one of the signs I run under a lot, and it never fails to cause me to want to run faster and harder, no matter how tired I am).
It’s springtime in Boston again, another year, another turn of the season. Soon it’ll be summer, then the leaves will start to change, and then the snow will start to fall. Then, inevitably, the blooms will return. Things will come and go, and we’ll all have our ups and downs. The beautiful thing about the seasons in Boston is, they’re proof that nothing lasts forever, not even pain.
These blooms were captured on one of my runs in Brookline. It was St. Paul Street, if you want to take a scenic walk one day.
Spring has sprung, so enjoy the city now that you can!
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