Daffodils
Spring is here! We survived!
We can feel the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair and it doesn’t feel as if the earth is trying to kill us.
Personally, I love winter and I wish it could stay longer. But I also love change, and spring is a good one. Even though we know it’s still going to be cold and rainy (I call it Mud Season here in Western PA), there is just something about spring. When it snows (and we’ve dealt with some doozies of spring blizzards), we still have hope. With spring, no matter what the weather brings, underneath it all now is a safety net. Spring is here to rescue us. It’s a little burst of confidence in the back of the mind.
· And we are confident: We’ve been here before and we can do it again. Spring will get us to summer. We’ll get there.
· We’ve got stamina: We know any last-minute winter storm won’t last long. We can put up with a little discomfort for a short period of time.
· We’re ready: We’ve paid our dues. We got through all the dark mornings, dark nights, cold days, and all the bundling-up. We’ve earned this.
If you think about it, these bullet points can be applied to just about every situation in life. They can help you push further than you thought you could. And, my friends, they’re the building blocks of optimism.
Now, I can be as dark and dour as the next guy. (I know some of you don’t believe that, but read me long enough and you’ll see it.) I can also be optimistic enough to drive people around me crazy, which I find funny. It’s probably easy to think I don’t see the bad or that I’m in denial. Or to think I lead a charmed life—which I do, actually, but not by happenstance. That, I live by choice.
The truth is that I spent most of my formative years wanting to be someone else. I can’t imagine it now, but back then I wanted to be someone fun, witty, popular… (Looking back, I basically wanted to be Ferris Bueller. I mean, who didn’t???) But I was so far from the mark. I was quiet, shy, and easily overlooked in a room full of people. I don’t know why I’m saying was. I am quiet and shy and easily overlooked in a room full of people. As life chipped away at me--like a deranged sculptor--I probably learned nine hard ways to face every situation before finding the tenth way that felt right, that felt like me.
It’s a lot of work being something that you’re not. And it’s such a relief to let that all go. We’re not all meant to be summer roses. Daffodils, for instance, typically bloom at the end of winter. They not only live in the cold but they thrive in the snow because it insulates them from colder air. They’re bright and pretty in a landscape of browns and greys.
They point the way to better things.
