After the darkness of winter, we’re finally, firmly in spring.

Lately, my days have been marked by a sense of peace and contentment. Throughout March, I cobbled together plans for just about everything: meals, workouts, workdays, garden, sewing. Near the month’s end, I started putting those plans into action, and the result has been transformative.

Little did I realize how much I need and crave order in my life, more of a guide and plan for everything that takes the energy of decision-making out of the equation. I’m finding freedom in the walls of structure.

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Getting this blog up and running is something I’ve been thinking about for months and months now, and my plans to write have brought me back to this empty screen and empty website. The hardest part is always finding the time, finding the energy, finding the words. Ideas typically come to me in a flow state, and getting into that mindset was tough through the heavy, dark days of winter.

In this new season of sunshine, I finally feel as though I’m bursting into bloom.

One of the big questions I’ve been trying to answer as I emerge from the winter blahs is what I want to do with this space, and I keep coming back to this: I simply want to have a place to share some words with the world. A collection of essays is taking shape in a notebook I bought on a girls’ trip to Denver, and those are far from ready for anyone’s eyes.

All my life, I’ve loved writing things down, especially those things I’ve kept only to myself, but there will always be a part of me that wants to set some words free.

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This will be the month that the little seedlings I’ve planted into my garden explode into vines. I’ll be reminded of my daughter’s birthday and the memory of bringing her life into the world. Our magnolia trees out front are crowned with buds, soon to grace us with the milky white perfection of their waxy blooms.

Here’s to the newness and freshness of April in the South, and the sense that summer (oh, the best) is just around the corner.