Ahhh, Spring!

I love spring. It is one of my most favorite times of year. While I think our little section of mother Earth still has a bit of winter to get out of her system, it looks like spring has arrived. My most favorite thing is seeing all the redbud trees in bloom between here and Oklahoma City. Something about spring awakens something within me, some internal drive to do and create. I'm feeling inspired to start trying new things and revisiting favorite things.

Which brings me to my next point. I believe I am seeing spring in a different way this year. While I have always taken small joys in seeing trees with splashes of green peeking out, I saw things differently today. In the car on the drive home, I was looking and looking at all the trees and new foliage emerging and new thoughts began to arrive. What a perfect, perfect metaphor for life! I'm not a big fan of the word perfect, but I am seeing how our seasons perfectly match the changes we humans go through in our short existences.

By nature, we like to remember the most positive up times...summer. Summer is great. Everyone enjoying the weather, the activities, the prosperity of the year. Then comes fall. We can gradually see that things are starting to change, maybe turning a little colder, a little darker, maybe some less pleasant things on the horizon. Winter brings darker days, more isolation, harder work to keep yourself and your family safe, cold.

But then spring. Ahhh, spring! We expect to look out the window and see the barrenness of winter, but then something strikes the eye. What is that? Blossoms and tender fresh green leaves! It's hope! Hope! Right out the window! Right there for the world to see! How bold! Oh, that feeling! That wonderful feeling that things will be okay and that someone out there (or up there, depending on where you choose to look) has a plan for us after all! How wonderful!

This is a time in history when we can all use a little hope. Maybe for economic reasons, maybe for cultural reasons, maybe for familial reasons, maybe for no reason at all. Hope is a magical, magical thing. It can turn everything around. It can inspire you to do things and take risks you've never thought of before. And who can't use a little more of that? So take a moment, look out your window, look for that first sign of life and color, grab your camera, use that moment for inspiration in the darker times, those times when winter tries to sneak back in. Let the wonder around you influence you in a positive way!