Although sandals and shorts are starting to reappear in my wardrobe, winter boots and hats are still in the mix because this is, after all, spring in Montana. Sleds remain stacked outside, as my son hopes for one last major snowstorm and the dandelions spark yellow in the new green grass. Spring in Montana is like the two-step, one where you’re ready to ditch the down jacket only to find that the next day you need it and a shovel.
When it’s sunny and warm and your babies are running half naked in the yard, dirt smeared on their faces, is there really any better way to spend an evening? You think: can it get any more beautiful as the sun slowly dips behind the mountains. Then the magic is gone when you awake to several inches of snow and you curse the weather, jam your feet into boots and look for the shovel.
It’s a season filled with fleeting joys and a welcome embrace of the sun and unfathomably long daylight hours. No more heavy eyelids at 6 p.m. like last winter, now your muddy babies are solar powered and won’t come in until it’s well after bedtime. Who can blame them? Surely not you as you’re perched on the deck with them, although not as muddy and most of your clothes are on, but you’re not making any moves to go inside either.
This spring brings even more glowing hope with the COVID-19 vaccine and declining cases of the virus. Our children have almost made it through the school year with successful in-person learning, a gift that most students around the nation didn’t have access to. Summer travel looks much more feasible than it did last year, and most of us are preparing for what appears to be an unprecedented tourist season in the Flathead Valley.
Access into Glacier National Park has changed with its ticketed entry system, and we’re hearing reports of a lack of rental car availability and staggeringly high hotel prices. In some ways, this place we call home is a bit unrecognizable, and sometimes feels like the changes are happening too fast. We’re confronting harsh realities of affordability and the slippery notion of local vs. native vs. outsider.
Spring is the season where these contradictions and juxtapositions reside. With the heady scent of lilac, we also have the threat of snow. We keep our shovels alongside the sandals and we also know that change and growth demands more and more of our attention than it ever has in the past. For now, however, it’s a season that shows us that new beginnings are possible and that we have a hand in how well they will flourish.
Maggie Doherty is the owner of Kalispell Brewing Company on Main Street.