Despite the odds, spring.

“Spring — The Plateau” by planetirony is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

That winter was a long winter, the winter when I was 27 and would strap my baby to my back before pulling on my boots. That winter when each night I would lean deep into the truck’s engine, flashlight between my teeth, to unbolt the battery, the metal of the socket wrench sticking to my fingertips, cold. The winter when the hard snow would snap in long lines under my weight — our weight, the baby, the battery, and me — as we crossed back…