Our spring interns are about to wrap up their time at Blood:Water. Here’s a beautiful post on spring from our marketing intern, Julia.

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” -Margaret Atwood.

I have been waiting so patiently for spring. I’ve never been good at loving winter. I try, but growing up on a farm in northern Illinois winter was cold and miserable. We lived in a house that had little to no insulation and the cold northern wind would blow across the flat of the prairie and right into our house. I would wait patiently for winter to end, for the ground to thaw into a beautiful muddy mess, and for flowers to spring up where dead brush had sat all winter long.

Spring has always been my favorite season. There is so much symbolism in the springtime that you cannot find in the other seasons. There is new life, redemption, second chances, and room for new growth. For me, spring starts with the Easter story—a story of deep love, deep hurt, and even deeper redemption. Spring redeems the earth from its long, cold, and dead winter in a way that, for me, is similar to the redemption Christ set for all on the cross. The earth does not have to start over each year, but she does. Each springtime our long, hard winters are rewarded with love, new life, and the redeeming of everything that was once dead.

I hope this spring when you walk outside and smell the air it smells like fresh dirt, new earth, and new life. I hope within that inhale you remember the promise that comes with the springtime—the promise of forgiveness, a clean start, and unending love.