Springtime in Montreal

It’s finally here, friends!  Spring has sprung in Montreal!  This week, temperatures are getting up to 14° or 15°C (57° to 60°F) and the sun is out and shining its face off.

WHAT A RELIEF!!!

Seriously, I thought we were never going to be rid of this:

Or this for that matter:

What a wonderful time of year spring is.  It’s a time to take a fresh look at things, to see things from a new perspective.  All winter we get bogged down with the dark and the cold, and it’s amazing just how much clarity a little more sunlight can bring to our lives.

This winter, I got bogged down thinking too much about the future.  Perhaps it was because the present was so unbelievably dark, cold, windy and dreary (see above photos), but it’s also because I have a tendency to forget to live for the moment.

Chico and I are both planners.  We like to organize, schedule, plan and prepare.  Improvising is not a huge forté of ours, though we are not incapable of it (“What should we have for dinner?”  “I dunno, let’s improvise!”).  Right now, our future plans are not yet settled, and that has caused me no small amount of anxiety.  Planning for the future is important, and being prepared is, after all, a great motto to follow.  But sometimes, spending too much time thinking ahead can cause us to forget to enjoy now.

And now is so pretty!  Look!

Walking home today past the musical swings at Place des Arts in downtown Montreal, I had an “aha” moment.  Looking around me, everyone was so happy to be outside in the first warmth of spring, and the sunshine that I realized what a shame it is to waste even a moment of the very fleeting present in worrying about the future.

Of course, we will take steps to firm our plans, and we will move together towards our goals.  But as of this moment, I am determined to simply enjoy NOW.

I will live in the present.  Because the present is all that we can be 100 per cent sure of.

And as Chico will be home presently, I’m off to make our supper.