False Spring

Written by: Cintra Harbold, LCPC

If there is one thing we can count on right now it is the unpredictability of our weather. 70 degrees one day and 30 degrees the next! While it is officially spring – March 20th to be exact – warmer weather and sun is still an uncertain commodity. Throughout the month of March, and into April, we will remain on a roller coaster of weather patterns, temperatures, and possibly even emotions! Some call it “False Spring.”

Whatever we call it, it often feels like a tease, a trick. We see crocus first, poking their purple and yellow heads out of the ground in our yard. We see white and green snowdrops in patches along a wooded trail. We hear the calls of the robin or the Red-Winged Blackbird. Signs of Spring, signs of renewal. We become hopeful and perk up our ears and eyes thinking, “It’s here! It’s finally here!” What we’ve been waiting for since the days grew shorter and colder several months ago - Winter, a time of stillness and apparent lack of growth. When we see the tiny new buds and blooms and colors, we get excited…Then it goes away. The cold temperatures return, the sun dims, the wind whips-up, sometimes it snows! The crocus and the snowdrops disappear.

It is easy to become cynical, depressed even. “It will never get here!” we cry. “I was fooled!”

So it is often with our own personal growth and healing in therapy. Recovery can be a “one step forward, two-steps-back” process that feels like an endless tease. We may feel like we are just fooling ourselves that things can improve and we can feel better. We set an important boundary, we have a “good day,” then we have a series of “bad ones.”

We are part of the Wild. We are part of Mother Nature’s ebb and flow. Few things happen all at once. If we are paying attention to the bigger picture of our process, we will notice this. When we start our healing journey all things may feel barren, like the winter. But we know that life is still working underneath the surface – changing, growing, evolving. As we grow, we start to see the fruits of our labor – a moment of joy here, a laugh with a friend there, an important insight into ourselves. This is real progress and signs of new life. Remember to relish in their beauty although they may seem short-lived. They are there to provide hope and are signs of things to come. Your sadness may return again and you may think, “Well what was that? I got my hopes up for nothing!” They are not “nothing.” They are reminders to stay hopeful and to trust in the seasons of change and growth. Spring is coming again, it always does. And we can get ready to embrace it and be grateful.