To me, spring means different things for different aspects of my life.

MY GARDEN – After this very cold winter, it’s nice to see the days are getting longer and there is warmth slowly creeping through the air. I hear the morning dove chirping in the morning and the squirrels are back looking for food. I look out the window and the garden beckons. When everything in the garden is barely awake, the spring bulbs are setting up their magnificent presence in the garden. Here in my little piece of paradise, life begins sprouting from the ground with the colorful Apeldoorn tulips. My garden needed my attention to get it ready for the season. There are pruning to be done, cleaning up the yard of debris, replacing the mulch, weeding and feeding the plants. All these aspects of gardening have its own benefits and have to be attended to. Unlike my New York garden which is ablazed with color all through spring, my tiny townhouse plot can’t accommodate all the plants I wanted. I planted a couple of varieties of tulips and a dozen daffodils to start the spring season. I also planted some dutch irises to go with the tulips. I also planted white allysums to grace the edge of the bed while waiting for the roses to take center stage. In the backyard, I had a gardenia, clematis, and three hydrangeas to complement more roses. This year I added a camellia ‘Yuletide’ to my shrub collection.

MY HOME – Inside the house, spring cleaning is a rite of passage. You feel tired looking at those dreary dark colored curtains. There is this urge to change the look to spring. Winter clothes have to be retired and switch on to spring and summer clothes. Since we moved to our new townhouse, we have downsized our belongings. As we get older, our priorities change. Material things are not as important as they used to be. We get wiser and believe we do not need as much as when we are younger.

MY BUSINESS – In business, the same thing is happening. Some people might not consider writing as a business but if you are smart you should think of it as such. As a former accountant, I always think of the profit and loss. We work on our business plan in late winter and start implementing it as the spring season starts in earnest. There is that energy that invigorate us to spring forward. When I was in real estate, we put more energy in prospecting in spring to capture more customers that are looking at homes and making offers. They would like to settle down by late summer to be able to get their kids in school. In my new career, I plan on putting more energy into my marketing plan and that includes blogging at this site and another site, updating my website constantly and continue writing.

MY CHURCH – There is the spiritual renewal in spring. With Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. For a practicing Catholic, it is the most sacred of Holidays and it meant a lot to me. I used to help out decorate the church on Saturday morning in preparation for the Easter Vigil at my church in New York. Here in Charleston, since I live too far from my church, I just sing with the Church Choir during the Holy Week. On Easter, we renew our baptismal promise. The church looks beautiful with Easter lilies and spring flowers giving us a sense of rebirth.

MY COMMUNITY – I live in a planned community called The Gardens of Whitney Lake and I’m on the board of the HOA and I also chair the Social Committee. Last month, I met with members of the Social Committee and we plan the events for this year with a Community Yard Sale this weekend as our first event this year. It was a time to clean up our closet. This year we are having an Earth Day to contribute to Charleston’s program of keeping our community beautiful. I just finished working on our community website and it was launched last week. It will be a nice spring start for the community which I love.

Rosalinda Morgan, author, “BAHALA NA (Come What May)”