The Hope of Spring
The world/local news might be almost too much to bear but there is something about taking a walk in the sunshine that can lift my spirits so much.
The grass is finally starting to green up and some people even have flowers peeking through the dead foliage from last year.
I can get sort of bored of walking around the same streets in my own area over and over again so sometimes I get in the car and drive to a different neighbourhood and walk there. This can take my mind off body pain that prevents me from walking far and keeps me walking far longer as I like to look around so much while I’m doing my ‘prayer walks’.
I can find a symbolic hope in these tiny buds and precious flowers that have survived a harsh season of winter and pop up fresh and blooming in gorgeous colour.
Two different friends sent me a gum commercial in which people were listening to their radios saying that it was time to leave their homes…the plaque had ended! The funny, uplifting part was that all the different kind of things we’ve seen ( and been) were shown… from long, food incrusted bearded men running out in their pajamas in the afternoon in a state of euphoria at finally seeing their neighbours outside as well…. to women in sweatshirts running braless out to their dead leaf covered cars to drive OUT to anywhere but their tiny homes filled with screaming children….ha ha
Tons and tons of people in the commercial are hugging and kissing each other in a park. It is a scene of extreme joy and it brought me to tears just thinking about how joyful we will all be when we can finally travel to our loved ones worry free for huge hugs and celebrations.
The sad part of this commercial though was that it was obviously filmed DURING the pandemic and there were at least fifty to seventy five people together, hugging, making out…. and I worried that they might get Covid. Ugh.
Hopefully most of us are staying apart as difficult as it continues to be. Our churches are locked down again and our schools, salons, gyms, summer patios, and SO many other businesses are closed again too. But our hospitals are open and filling up fast with massive numbers of ill people. One again I am so so thankful for our frontline workers who continue to help us as we all face an unknown future.
And I am thankful for the hope of Spring.
Someday we will emerge once again from our homes to walk alone but instead of walking around the block we will run to our friends and family and embrace each other like a new flower that embraces the wind after a long winter and we will say, “We survived once again!”
God willing that day will be sooner than later.
Be safe. Peace, friends.
(I dedicate this blog to some of the most wonderful people in my life who have birthdays this week : My 89 year old daddy,Dennis, my bestie, Barb (today!), Grant, Mrs. Zeman, Sebastien, and Jackie T. And thinking about my Grandma Pike who entered Heaven today many years ago. Happy birthday all. I love you.)