We’ve had a mild winter this year and spring is already beginning to show her colors, but in many ways it has seemed like winter for years, I am reminded today however, “No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”  ~Hal Borland
This morning I am being continually reminded of a rebirth that is occurring here in McClellanville under our feet.  Like most change in McClellanville it doesn’t happen in broad sweeping movements, but in gentle strokes.
The cries of my newborn child as my first comfort him as he has seen us do so many times before remind me why I made the move from a secure job in a distant land to return home for a different type of security more than 5 years ago.
A tweeting songbird and a thin layer of yellow dust on my car reminds me that spring is approaching and that we will soon break off the shackles of the cold winter’s night.
I walk into Archibald Rutledge Academy to find my 5-year-old’s classroom has moved across the hall to open up yet another classroom for remodeling as the school undertakes it’s evolution into the new Cape Romain Environmental Education Charter School.
I drive into work past a new rental home coming onto the market with much demand and a home under contract to be sold that will close next week.  Yes, the real estate market too is shaking off it’s shackles and it looks like it will be a good year for those both trying to sell their homes and those buying a new home to begin new phases in their life.
When I arrive at my new office to work on my new website, there is an email reminding me of a meeting for the Sewee Summit Jobs meeting to create a new Business Owner’s Association for the McClellanville / Awendaw region.
I realize, as I turn on my space heater to warm my fingers to type, that these signs of change have presented themselves to me all before 9am and all of this before winter has fully released it’s grasp on us.
Change is something that the people of McClellanville have grown to fear for decades and that fear has allowed the Town to preserve it’s way of life while the world around us collapsed to the pressures of change.  It is not a bad fear, more like the healthy respect that lion trainer might have for his partner.   We have whipped back the roaring lion without a sign of cowardliness and have earned it’s respect in the process.  The time for fear is passing though and we must put on a new face.  A face that welcomes good changes like I will welcome my son into my arms today when the last school bell rings.
If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant;
If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.
~Anne Bradstreet