robin! robin! robin!

it's hard to overstate the joy of seeing the season's first robin up here on the tundra, like i did today. rather than a "oh, that's pleasant" feeling, it conjures up a "jesus god, i made it through another one" sort of vibe. 

one year my friend julie – who had a 6-year-old, a 4-year-old and a new baby – pulled over to the side of the road, put her head on her steering wheel, and cried when she saw a robin. that was shortly after it had snowed (again) about a foot in mid-april.