Spring is springing.

Never before have I experienced the coming of spring so acutely. It is dramatically wonderful. New life is pushing its green little fingers out of the earth as the sun warms it up, a golden welcome for such long awaited happenings. 

I walk every day. In "normal" times I wouldn't be doing that but it has meant that I have watched the first signs of spring emerge, each day bringing new little gift. If I sound giddy, it's because I am. The new warmth of the sun, the birds singing their songs, the flowers appearing. Everything is beautiful. Like, perfectly, wonderfully beautiful. 

You can still read the news and feel scared, or you can read the news and feel hopeful. The hopeful bit has certainly been emphasised by the seasons changing. But it seems not to matter so much when the days grow longer. 

It just seems as if things are changing in the way we want them to, a multitude of things. A long, dark winter coming to an end. The seasons a literal metaphor. Maybe. I hope. 

Happy Valentine's Day To Me.

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I have never been too bothered by it, even when I've been in relationships. But it can always be a bit of a slap in the face when you're single and your entire social media is filled with people seemingly having much better days than you. The obvious solution to that is to just not go on social media on the 14th February. 

However, I haven't felt the need to do that this year as a single person. I feel like I've had a revelation actually. For the first time in a long time I feel completely fine, content, even, with being single. Astonishingly my own company is pretty great. Even more astonishing is the fact that when I think about dating, I just can't be bothered. I'm sure I will one day, but right now I am happy just plodding along without a romantic interest in my life. It feels great. It's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I can see others in love and feel joy for them, and I don't have to compare their lives to mine. 

I know, now, that I get along great when I'm not in a relationship. I have more time for my friends and family, and, quite significantly, I have more time for myself. I think of all the skills I have learnt in the time I have been single, all the opportunities I have found for myself when I'm not worrying about a boy who isn't texting me back, and I'm just not sure a lot of it would have happened if I wasn't focussing primarily on me. 

When I was going through a breakup last year people kept telling me to pour all of that love back into myself, and for a while I couldn't understand what that could possibly mean. And now I do, I used it all to repair broken heart and love myself a little more than I did before. I just rerouted the direction of all that energy. I feel the calmest I have felt in years. 

And I know, now, that one day it will happen again. Falling in love, I mean. And maybe after that it'll happen again, and then maybe again after that. But I'm not so worried anymore, I don't feel like I'm being left out of some great secret to life. I'm just much more prepared to go with the flow, which is pretty exciting.