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We are knee-deep into spring and its activities. School kids are enjoying spring sports, and older kids are looking forward to the last day of school.

We are reminded of a quote from Ernest Hemingway: “When spring comes, even the false spring, there are no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people, and if you could keep from making an engagement, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as spring itself.”

In one respect Hemingway was right — spring does make us happy, especially children, who enjoy the outdoors. Perhaps it is because spring always brings with it a sense of renewal and optimism.

After the cold gray winter, color begins to slowly reemerge and remind us that our town soon will be an oasis of fragrant and beautiful flowers. Even now, homes in neighborhoods are awakening with blooming red roses, yellow, blue and purple irises. Pink azalea bushes are full of bloom.

The longer and warmer days make it perfect to shake off the winter cobwebs and take a walk. Kids are outside playing, and if you live in the country, folks are preparing for garden-making time. Gardens are being plowed, and people can be seen at garden supply places picking out plants for the garden and buying seed potatoes.

The mowing season has already begun, and mowers can be heard buzzing every day around the neighborhoods.

Every afternoon and evening, neighbors can be seen sitting on their porches or taking a walk. We are incredibly fortunate in Elizabethton because of the number of places where we can walk and explore. Many, if not all, are handicapped-accessible.

Spring is a busy time of the year and is enlightening. Step outside and feel the light breezes. Trees are bursting with new leaves. Birds happily flit about, looking for food for their new broods. Sunshine warms not only the body but the soul as well.

Yes, spring — the season that brings us from those cold and dreary days of winter to the renewal of life. It’s no wonder that a Gallup poll said Americans favor spring as their favorite season — 36 percent compared to the runner-up, falling to 27 percent. It has been America’s favorite season since the 1940s, probably longer than that, but polls (thank goodness) weren’t around back then. And it makes sense that among young adults, summer outpaces spring as the favorite season. I can only figure the reason is they still look good in a bathing suit.

Fast forward a month, and we could be barefoot and digging in the dirt, hoping — no, knowing — that this tomato plant will produce the best tomatoes ever. We can already taste that first tomato sandwich, with its sweet and tart juices flowing from the corners of our mouths.

Gardening is therapeutic — for the mind and the body. Vegetables fresh from your own garden are not only leaps and bounds better than what’s available at the local grocery, they’re also better than what your neighbor grows and brings you baskets full of every year. There’s just something about growing your own food that is satisfying.

Back to spring. It’s really somewhat unpredictable around here. We can have 70 degrees in March and freeze in April. We can have a drought or, more likely, not even be able to work the ground because it is too wet. (Cue to new gardeners: Get the ground ready as soon as you can these days. Waiting could only prolong your planting date.)

Me? I’ve got spring fever. I just enjoy sitting on the porch and soaking up the sun, watching the birds and listening to the sounds of spring. Just think: If flowers blooming, trees leafing and growing grass made a noise, how noisy spring days would be.

Ah, spring. It’s our season of hope, holding a promise that change is a-comin’ — for the better.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant,” wrote English poet Anne Bradstreet. “If we did not sometimes taste adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Each season has its touchstones for the mind and body, many of which you already enjoy, perhaps without realizing it.

But in spring, let yourself break out of the cocoon. Open those windows. Get outside, plant something, fly a kite, ride a bike, have a picnic. We’ve endured the darkness and need to play in the light.