New beginnings

Today's 100 words:

Like most people, I consider the first day of a new year to be a time of new beginnings. It's a fresh start, a second chance to get things right, a time to reflect on our lives and the way we live them and decide if there are things we need to change, things we need to get right this time. The day always holds so much hope and promise. It's like having a new notebook with all those blank pages just waiting to be filled--but with what? We don't know. It's a mystery that hasn't yet been written.

Winter disguised as spring

Today's 100 words:

The weather we've been having so far this season has reminded me a lot more of spring than of almost-winter. Yesterday it rained, and the air had that wet mud smell, that fresh scent I always associate with spring, and it made me long to skip the cold winter that likely still lies ahead and go directly on to the season of freshness and newness and life, that time when buds start bursting on trees, the grass turns green, flowers bloom... I like the starting-over that spring represents, the idea that everything--that everyone--gets a second chance.