Around Christmas time, most people become obsessed with oranges – they give you an orange and the story of some little orphan who got the one orange and then shared it with her friends and how it was so tasty and so on about how it’s promoting health because of the vitamin C and yadda yadda. For me, this was always a nice story, but with so much other stuff going on, I didn’t really care or feel the way I do come February.

By February, I’m sick of winter. I’m tired of the rain, the wet, the short days and the long dark nights (even if they are getting shorter.) I’m tired of the cold. I’m tired of people being sick (and in most cases, me being ill too) and I’m ready for a change.

And then comes the week of Valentines. Laugh if you will, but Valentine’s is when you start seeing the cards, the roses, and the strawberries in the stores (all be it at a premium). Only they’re not quite ripe – and don’t catch your attention. However, if you give it a couple weeks, and keep your senses open, you’ll discover….

priceless rubies of sweetness that burst into your mouth and remind you that yes, somewhere, there is sunshine. Somewhere, it is warm. Somewhere, the flowers have bloomed, the bees have buzzed, and a fruit has grown to be plucked and trucked directly to your tastebuds.

And that’s when I’m tempted. I walk past the display all year – until for 30 seconds, all I can smell are fresh warm strawberries. As the scent envelopes my body, these little gems call to me, through my nose, peaking my tastebuds and making me salivate in anticipation. It seems, at that moment, that I’m suddenly smelling summer vacation – and I have to pause, turn back, and look for the most ripe, fragrant container of perfect strawberries because no matter the cost, they will be mine – they must be mine. I crave them like the sky craves the moon, the plants need the rain or like a bird needs to fly.

Rarely do they make it all the way home. As I eat my precious red nuggets, each one bursting into my mouth with a juicy tart sweetness, it’s like they have a promise of summer, a promise of sunshine and warm days ahead, of feet in the sand and exotic trips to somewhere beyond.

Yeah, it’s the strawberries that do it to me everytime. They make me long for a new season, long for the warm damp earth they come out of, and take me – for just a moment – into the world beyond winter’s rainy gray cold into the vivid sun filled days.

It is for this reason, that I say, the best thing about February is Strawberries.

(PS. Happy Birthday, Angi – BFF – A&A, E&E, BATS, NMW!)