As I type these words the Weather Network is forecasting -21 degrees overnight and -25 degrees tomorrow morning. When I step out of my door there is snow and ice everywhere and frostbite is just around the corner if I am not bundled up from head to toe.

As with every winter, we have been through long, cold days tied to strange and tantalizing warm spells that only served to fuel the coming of a vast and frozen landscape as temperatures dropped again to painful lows. These are the sorts of things that lend credence to the idea that February is the longest month of the year for people.

So it is with no small amount of gratitude that I notice the calendar and have determined that, despite all appearances outside to the contrary, we are, in fact, in the month of spring. While it does not feel like it and certainly it does not look like it, one cannot deny that this is the month that contains the first day of spring – a mere two plus weeks away.

This fact, alongside the coming of my personal favourite day of the year (Saint Patrick’s Day), goes a long way toward warming me up. It is a reminder that despite a season of cold and darkness (can you tell that winter is not my favourite), despite days of treacherous roads and vast mountains of discarded coats and boots and scarves and mitts and snow pants and toques, ad infinitum, ad nauseum…spring is on the way.

It cannot be stopped.

There will once again be sunlight and warm breezes. Convertibles and classic cars will hit the roads again and the bike can come out of the basement. The boys of summer will begin stretching and prepping for a new season of baseball (surely the most hopeful of sports) and the lake will call and all that goes with it. Kids and foolish adults begin prepping their skate boards and planning the new moves they will learn at the Skate Plaza while golf clubs everywhere start getting hauled from storage.

See that, you feel warm already don’t you? That’s the power of a sure thing; the power of a certain hope.

If these coming days seem long and the sun seems paler than it should just look at the calendar and note the promise of things to come. Before you know it you will be barbecuing on your deck and enjoying a few choice beverages with friends and nary a parka to be seen.

I guarantee it.