hope

Hope in the sunrise

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Quietly this year will be leaving and the new year will be ushered in; as it always has done over time, just as every day’s sunrise ushers in a new day. With each sunrise there is hope dawning – hope for each one of us, hope for all of us. How fitting are these lines by Emily Dickinson:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all

I wish you all an abundance of hope for the new year’s sunrise, and for each day that follows.

A promise of a bright day

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Christmas and a new year are both fast approaching. Amidst all the preparations I’m looking forward to a more hopeful time. Each morning we see the daylight overcome the dark of night. There’s a promise of a new start, a promise of a bright day.

I hope your upcoming days are filled with peace in your mind, kindness on your lips, and a joyfulness and lightness in your heart.

Pasque flowers for spring

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Today is Easter – a day filled with promise, hope, and spring.  Yet this year is not like other years.  Many of us are celebrating the day without friends and family and without the many traditions that we have come to associate with Easter.

And usually Mother Nature is on board too, but that’s not the case in Minnesota today.  I’m looking out the window at snow coming down and collecting on the grass and trees.  When the temperature was 60 degrees yesterday I thought the 3-6 inches of predicted snow was wrong, but that just may hold true.  Somewhere there are lovely small pasque flowers that are keeping their blossoms closed to protect themselves from the snow.  They too know what’s necessary for survival.  And yet I know spring will turn the corner, and these flowers will open up again and be thankful for the moisture and the sun.  There is promise and hope.

 

Hope

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Webster’s dictionary defines hope as wanting something to happen or be true.  So it is with spring this year.  We “hope” for sunshine, warmer temperatures, the bright colors of flowers.  We “hope” that the passing days bring longer hours of sunshine.  And yet Mother Nature has alternative plans.  This week we rode a roller coaster through snow and strong winds, rain, and the promise of warmer air.  Through it all we strive to embrace what it is, just as these runners ran through a deserted Como Park having the trails and snow to themselves in this once-again wintry landscape.

A rite of spring

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A tulip presence 9170_StaatsThe in-between season of spring — when we hope for the colors that were vacant in winter.  Spring in Minnesota is volatile, swinging from snow to rain to warm to cold.  We’ve experienced it all this past week, but we also know that spring will prevail and color will return.  I was craving some of that color and resorted to store-bought tulips (since the ones in the ground are barely one-inch shoots right now).  Every time I walked by the tulips I was reminded that spring will come, that warmth is around the corner, and that the Easter tradition of hope remains a part of us.