Hope Springs Eternal

Spring is in the air! It’s that common cliché repetitively bandied about this time of year. Most likely because of all that pesky pollen everywhere. But despite the pollen, that shift from winter to spring is welcome when it arrives. Or at the very least, its always enthusiastically welcomed by me.

I figuratively and literally shed layers as spring beckons. Goodbye sweaters, goodbye extra blankets, goodbye carb-laden comfort foods. Hello blooming flowers, hello green grass, hello bare feet, hello clean crisp air, hello lighter fare.

Its a season of promise, it hints at good things to come, and its full of possibility. How can we not feel enlivened witnessing all of nature blooming? Just outside the door birds are happily chirping, branches are sprouting buds, and flowers are breaching the barren earth skyward.

The rhythm of changing seasons is now a sign to pause for a moment to check in with myself. What do I want out of this season? And what do I need to do to get it right? I use this rumination to inform how to spend my time. In spring almost all of those answers start with the outdoors.

And as so often happens when I mull a topic I turn it over again and again in my head. Looking at it from one way, then this way, and then taking a stab at it from even another direction and perspective. I endeavor to crystalize and synthesize all of its attributes. Yes, spring is all of the things I previously mentioned. Its a time for growth and renewal. But still, what is its nexus? And I keep returning to hope.

Hope is abundant in the chromatic grandeur of flowers as they reveal themselves from bud to full bloom. Its present in the verdant growth of blades of grass. Hope is alive in leaves as they grow to envelop the exposed branches of a tree. It’s the embodiment of anticipation and excitement on the cusp of what’s yet to be. Hope … it optimistically and decisively springs eternal.