![\"Spring](\"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Spring_training.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI have a friend who\u2019s a fanatical Red Sox fan and lover of baseball.\u00a0 Every year around this time he sends me an email with the subject header: \u201cPitchers and Catchers Report in One Week\u201d. For me this email is as much a harbinger of spring as the sighting of a robin or the first crocus or daffodil pushing up through the leftover snow. When I was growing up in Maine, it was the breakup of the ice jam on the Penobscot River.<\/p>\n
But spring means something different to me now than it did when I was young. Then it meant time to be outside, to play in the fields and woods, to be free. I don\u2019t have that sense of freedom today. Although still active, I don\u2019t play baseball or even softball anymore. I\u2019ve given up my true sports love, basketball. I bike, play tennis, and practice a martial art. And I still hike in the woods and fields, but not with the same sense of play.\u00a0 So much of my time is not my own. Great chunks of every week I have to be at work, which has much longer hours than elementary school!<\/p>\n
This year I\u2019ve decided to try to change my mind-set.\u00a0 I still have to go to work, of course, but I\u2019m making it a practice to be outside, even in the winter, and especially as spring approaches, as much as possible. Before and after work and at lunchtime, I take walks. I make myself go to and from the parking garage by the street instead of through the connector walkways.<\/p>\n
What does spring mean to you? Are you filled with a sense of renewal and a rebirth of hope? Will the Red Sox rebound from their miserable season of last year? What personal goals do you have for \u201cthis season\u201d?<\/p>\n
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\u00a0From Wiki Commons: Spring Training, Vero Beach, Florida, 1994<\/i>, by Rick Dikeman I have a friend who\u2019s a fanatical Red Sox fan and lover of baseball.\u00a0 Every year around this time he sends me an email with the subject header: \u201cPitchers and Catchers Report in One Week\u201d. For me this email is as much a harbinger of spring as the sighting of a robin or the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-body-and-spirit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6ZZxW-Ae","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hnetalk.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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