Spring has a way…
Every year it comes like a thief in the night. One day it’s a frigid winter cold, and the next there are leaves on trees. Not all of nature transitions inconspicuously, but the trees on my lawn seem to always do. Three different homes now since I began to slow down and observe the weather change, and three votes for this observation.
The tree sitting on my lawn began its transition a few weeks ago with the smallest buds…and my radar went up. Will it do what it has done in the past? Every morning I would look out the window overlooking it and just observe. Two weeks went by and initially it seemed as though nothing else was happening. No signs of progress, then one morning…
Those tiny buds easily missed at first began to grow larger…then, as a few more days went by, there were citrus yellow baby leaves all over, that in the last week have been changing into a more distinct green. I know from experience that over the next few weeks I will continue to witness their transformation. These tiny bright green leaves will grow in size, then the color will darken. Eventually there would be no indication that just a few weeks ago this tree stood bare.
In the winter months, my bare trees could have easily been mistaken for dead trees. But it is only for a season (at a time), and there was/is so much life in them still (every time).
Each year as I begin to nature watch the beauty in Spring’s arrival I also think of the winters of life. Tucked in between periods of show stopping beauty lie the frigid seasons that call for hiding, covering up…the times that we feel bare, vulnerable to the world, where if we are not cautious we would think ourselves permanently deprived.
But we are not…Spring has a way of reminding us of this in the gentlest whisper.
It reminds me that we are not done when we are down. If we trust our roots to the ground, remain planted and watered, we begin to bud again. Perhaps it starts slow and small, but these tiny buds give way to newness…and what is new and anchored continuously grows.
When you can’t see the beauty in life, try to remember that in time beauty returns, life becomes full again. Just hold on…