Last year I planted pansies in a planter by my front door. I had not planted them in the fall before, and because they were close by I watched what they did throughout the winter and into the warm season.
I noticed that the flowers did not grow in the winter, but neither did they freeze and die. They kept their heads bent, stayed low to the ground and waited out the winter. When spring came they put their little heads up and began to grow and thrive again. And what came was beautiful!
I have been thinking about how we are like these wonderful plants that can withstand so much.
When I had my near-fatal carbon monoxide accident 2 months ago today I was so glad to survive. Strangely though, the experience put me into a winter of sorts. I felt stopped in my tracks, as though I needed to just hunker down and survive. I stopped working on goals, stopped reading, stopped blogging, stopped doing things I normally love. I stopped growing. I needed to just put my head down, survive, and live through the storm of physical and emotional winter that had hit my life.
Now I feel like it is beginning to be spring again. I feel like I am starting to put my head up, feel the sun's warmth again, and start growing and blooming into who I am supposed to be again.
We all have times in our lives when everything is warm and sunny as well as times when it feels like the dark cold of winter, and it is all we can do to hunker down and weather life's harsh cold storms.
Remember that the spring always comes again sooner or later to warm up our lives and help us bloom into what we are intended to be. Keeping that hope alive during the winters in our lives makes all the difference. Spring will come. It always does eventually.
