Like a flower bud slowly coming into bloom, Jyväskylä’s receding snow is revealing new things everyday. From garden beds and landscape art that incorporate ornate paving, statues, and small trees; to beaches at the lakes; and benches everywhere; things are seemingly appearing out of the blue everyday. In fact, there’s even a miniature golf park nearby that we didn’t even know was there. Areas that were uniformly flat under a blanket of snow now present a green and varied topography and even paths and roads that continually surprise. I’m not sure why I’m so taken aback as we are in April after all. Perhaps it’s the suddenness of the change from a white world that appeared as stationary as the last ice age!
As the evenings rapidly change from early darkness to late evening sunshine, and the coats of the local hares and foxes darken from their winter white to summer brown, so do the attitudes and behavior of the people appear to adjust. People sit at benches and bask in the warm sun, restaurants all over town are putting tables and chairs outside for their patrons, and pots containing small daffodils provide a splash of color outside many stores. Shutters are coming off small cafes by the lake and skateboards and bikes are replacing ice skates. Gone are the six-foot tall mountains of plowed snow creating narrow pathways. There is an energy in the air that must, I sincerely hope, be spring even if it is far too early for flowers to bloom out in the soil.
The change from winter to spring is both a symbolic and physical one that naturally prompts a person to look ahead to new experiences and fresh new ideas and mindset. We felt like hunkering down and regrouping during the winter; taking a pause and reflecting on what had been. For us visitors in Finland, the dark and cold slowed us down so that we enjoyed one or two things a day. Activities took planning and extra effort to prepare for and recover from. If winter is a quiet introvert, then spring and summer are boisterous extroverts ready for the next exciting adventure. Suddenly, the landscape is opening up as is our desire and ability to range farther out into it. What a pleasure to enjoy the changing of the seasons in a place where it occurs so dramatically.
