Spring equals rejuvenation. And after this particularly brutal winter — remember how it started with record snowfall in December? — we think the great natural healer called April may need a helping hand. So we sought out the best way to rejuvenate, and found ourselves traveling near and far to four spas.

Our report from the front-lines follows. But first a tip: If you choose to visit any of these facilities, think of ways to integrate their lessons into your life. A quick-hit rejuvenation is great, but it’s not the solution. Or as Jesse George, spa director at Stoweflake Spa and Resort in Stowe, Vermont, says, “If a spa is doing what it’s supposed to, it can create lifestyle changes for you.”

In these parts, the arrival of spring is met with a hurried rush to get outdoors. As the days stretch a little longer, the temperatures creep above 50, and the swampy ground begins to firm, local gardens slowly transform from barren to budding. If you’re hungry for a glimpse of spring, you can find it in gardens of show-stopping color and heavenly fragrances. You just have to know where to look.

Four exquisite local gardens, open to the public, offer everything from 19^th-century greenhouses laden with citrus trees and orchids to thousands of spring bulbs in dizzying hues. These garden escapes are surefire cures for spring fever.

When I was in the second grade, I went through an entire Little League season without making even incidental contact with the baseball. By the end of the year it was obvious to everybody involved that, rather than swinging, I’d be more likely to get a hit if I just stuck out the bat and stood very, very still.

So it’s probably not surprising that by the time my daughter Jackie, now 8, joined soccer and basketball a few years ago, my team sports career was a long distant memory, like booster shots and the taste of paste. Which led me to a dilemma as I prepared to attend her first soccer match-up: Would I be able to muster enough interest to follow the games, much less show the sideline fervor expected of parents these days? If I didn’t care enough to berate the ref, would my kids love me less?

Like a lot of people, I tend to picture the holidays of my youth like a Norman Rockwell painting: My sister stringing garland around the tree, me in the kitchen lighting the menorah, my brother spinning a dreidel as Andy Williams croons “Sweet Little Jesus Boy.” Although I don’t recall ever seeing that scene depicted on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post.

Yes, it can be disorienting when religions collide under one roof. With a Catholic father and a Jewish mother (and none of us practicing either religion in any discernible way), my family was committed to commemorating all the holidays that came down the pike, including, in no particular order, Hanukkah, Christmas, Easter, Passover and, if my mother’s Bubbe was in town, Yom Kippur. (Fortunately for us, Bubbe lived out her final years in Israel, where we were somehow able to convince her that the reason she hadn’t seen my bar mitzvah pictures was because I had been 12 for the past four years.)

And that type of holiday tradition continues in my home today, despite the fact that I have a wife who actually knows what she believes in. (Theresa is Catholic but is an ardent admirer of “Fiddler on the Roof.”) She feels that it’s important that I teach our two children, now 6 and 8, about their Jewish heritage, even if I picked up most of it from Neil Simon movies.

You face enough stress over the holidays, so you don’t need to be worrying about wine.

Here’s a guide to choosing a great wine to complement any holiday meal — a rib roast, lamb, turkey, or even lobster.

And we’ve got good news: Picking wines this time of year is easy, because most holiday meals lack the extreme acidity or fiery spice that make it tricky to choose the right wine. This is a “wine friendly” season.

So let’s look at some classic holiday dishes and then choose some traditional and not-so-traditional wines to complement them.

Editor’s Note: If you’re like us, you’re convinced that the good life includes travel. So we’re adding stories about destinations near and far into the mix at “GoodLife.” We start in rural France, where a community has made one of life’s pleasures its life’s work. We’re talking about Cognac and cognac. Check out this beautiful city if you get a chance, but even if you can’t visit the town, the good news is that you can still get a taste of what they’re up to.

They don’t just drink cognac in the Charente river valley of Southwest France. They live it.

Driving through the pretty countryside, where small hills and valleys are dotted with perfectly spaced grapevines, you’d never know the wine produced here in this region above Bordeaux is used to make “the Noble spirit.”

But enter the city of Cognac and you know where you are. The big guys — Hennessy, Rémy Martin, Martell — are all based here along with smaller houses, and occupy historic buildings on much of the riverfront. Right across the Charente in Jarnac is powerhouse Courvoisier. Nearly everyone in the city of 20,000 and surrounding countryside seems connected with the famous French brandy. Cognac is big business in Cognac.