Its Springtime on Chestnut Ave.

080508, originally uploaded by Erica the Ninja.

Last winter was beyond depressing for me, smashing my soul to smithereens with all of the changes of starting a life from scratch. I really felt that I was barely subsisting, and some days I didn't even want to do that. The cold just punctuated the loneliness and confusion and sadness and I thought the New England winter would never end. I could not possibly understand how people lived like this.

I remember the first day that I acknowledged spring in my new home. I walked home from the T in the dizzy evening light, drowning in the most incredible scent of full, silky blossoms that had exploded overnight. Everything felt alive and warm and it was then that I understood why people survived the winters here. Spring was Just. So. Incredible. The entire summer I walked around like a child, absorbed in every color and scent my youth in the desert did not see.

In a way, I am living it all again for the first time. This is my first New England spring behind the lens of a camera. This is my first New England spring as a New Englander. And, this is my first New England spring where I feel like a real human being, not just some empty husk of my previous life.

I too am starting to blossom.