March Madness – A Seasonal Disorder

March – the Madness has begun, gargantuan battles, colossal contests, a titanic life and death struggle to see who will come out on top.

Of course I’m talking about the Annual Rite of Spring – not what’s going on in arenas on college campuses, but the real Rite of Spring: the end of Winter and nature’s birth of new life.  I did report with great joy that The Lenten Spring Has Begun and extolled the beauty of winter’s demise with the appearance of Lenten Roses.  But winter wasn’t done with us yet!

As in the STAR WARS epic in which the original triumph of good over death proved a temporary reprieve (and a chance for a sequel!) so too winter’s demise was apparently over stated, for Winter came back burying the exuberant signs of Spring beneath its withering defense: snow.

Wrapping the bright colors of new life in Winter’s cold embrace as if it could stop the advancing Spring.

But it did prove to be a short-lived last hooray for Winter which melted under Spring’s offense.

Spring quickly re-emerged and in the end proved herself capable of withstanding winter’s worst, and winter spent by its earlier storms, literally evaporated and disappeared before the warming trend of Spring.

In this gargantuan struggle for life and death, once again Spring triumphs over winter, displacing Winter as the reigning season of the year.