Spring into Hope

Have you ever noticed that Easter is the quintessential marker of spring no matter what the weatherman has in store? White banks might still be lining rural roads and light white flakes might still be falling here and there, but we don’t care. What’s important is the significance of the yearly marker which heralds the incredible gift of spring.

            Life is full of gifts and possibilities that we may fail to appreciate at times. We appreciate the arrival of spring because it is renewal and hope after a long winter. It’s a time when we all have a glass-half-full view. We become more optimistic and more cheerful because nature has decided to be kinder.

             But what about all the other good things in our lives? Do we cultivate a glass-half-full vision all year or do we tend toward the glass-half-empty view?

             A woman I know, who was forced to retire a few years short of the normal retirement age, has been spending her time complaining. The reasons vary over time, of course. Sometimes it’s her former employer, other times it’s the noisy neighbors in her condo building or the sad state of morality today. In short, the types of things most of us have deplored at some point or another, however in her case it has become a mission that aggravates.

             But life sometimes helps us along. Some months ago when someone close to that complaining woman became seriously ill, she stepped in. She nursed another human being back to health while spending much less time complaining. Her outlook changed to one of glass-half-full because she witnessed the potentially powerful force of the human spirit.

             We are all given marvelous opportunities no matter the season. May these be plentiful for all of us in this season when spirits soar and hope propels us forward.