Only with winter-patience can we bring The deep-desired, long-awaited spring. -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Living in four seasons keeps us accustomed to change. Just as we get use to living in one season, another one soon follows. We can never get too comfortable. Maybe that is why we are referred to, in this part of the world, as "rugged" New Englander's.

Another test of our endurance is the transition into spring. Natives refer to this time of year as Mud Season. It begins as soon as temperatures rise above 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun melts the snow and ice while the earth gives a huge heave. The frozen dirt softens and becomes liquid lava that oozes down back roads swallowing up everything in its path.

Many of us have experienced firsthand the results of trying to move through the mud. You don't. You get stuck. Your shoes or boots are literally sucked off your feet. We have to learn to be patient during mud season and resist the impulse to try and maneuver down impassable roads.

Spring teaches us that timing is everything. Digging up the dirt to see if the spring bulbs are growing is fruitless. All things in nature happen in their own time.

Where in your life have you been trying to push the season, not trust your timing, or having faith that you will get to where you want to go....when the time is right?

How do you know when the time is right to launch a new business, change careers, or work on improving some aspect of your life? Begin by paying attention to the signs around you that the road ahead is passable. Signs can come in the form of coincidences, chance meetings, a movie, or a book that falls from a shelf. Doors that were previously closed to you seem to open. Someone says something that offers a clue to where you need to go next. You just have stand still and tune in to the guidance all around you.

When nothing on the surface seems to be changing, trust that new growth is happening. Have faith that the evidence will appear surely as the green shoots from tender plants poke their way through the dirt each spring.

Everything in nature, including us, has an internal sense of timing. Stand still. Tune in. Trust your timing. Let spring find you.

Nancy Bishop

Nancy Bishop is a Life Transitions Coach providing a menu of coaching programs and services to women at midlife who want to find more time, energy and abundance to live life more authentically.