It's that time of year when I notice the sun is rising earlier. If we're out before 6, my dog and I sometimes catch a glimpse of the deer feeding on newly greened-up hillsides. Or coyotes--- like yesterday, when we listened to a pair trilling at us from just a few yards away.
It's the light. Earlier in the season, I'm not out at this time. But, drawn to rise even before it's light, my morning walk is rewarded with wildlife sightings.
Because we've done this for years --- the early morning walk with the dog --- I know that seasonal change affects my behavior pattern. Even without a walking routine, every year about this time brings a spring: not only the name of the season, but a jump-y kind of spring.
A spring ahead.
Our brains lay down tracks that we call memory. This invariant representation ("this is how it is") is then used when we later run into something similar -- a pattern like seasons changing. The memory that goes with, "Spring brings with it earlier sunrises," follows a parallel track to "Summer comes after spring."
I like summer. Summer is coming soon. Spring is on the way to summer, so spring is positively associated.
I'm therefore more motivated, mobile, movement-oriented --- in spring.
Springing ahead.
Not necessarily springing forward; that would indicate too much structure. Ahead could mean, to the side, or Up, Along, On, Over, and so many possibilities.
And possibilities infers that I must look ahead in time.
Hope for the future.
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