Everything Blooms in Spring!

There’s a few feet of snow... temperatures plummet to below freezing... and my cousin, Sally, is busy planting seeds and potting plants.  Plants delivered in the snow are being given new life in the warmth of her greenhouse.  It’s not easy work and many hands are needed but there are no words to express how seeing the first tiny bud makes one feel.

I look at my azaleas in full bloom, the tiny buds appearing on the crepe myrtle and the abundance of beautiful wild flowers in our yards and along our roads.  There is new birth and beauty everywhere I look!  Mother nature is springing forth after her long winter’s sleep with new growth celebrated by the profusion of colorful blossoms and bright shades of green!

Isn’t it interesting how a tiny flower can contain so much beauty and be so powerful as to lift our souls.  We become aware that this simple beauty enters and fills us until we, too, bloom forth with smiles of happiness and joy!  There’s an extra spring in our step and we exude the simple joy of experiencing our oneness with all of nature and mankind.

In our gardens it’s time to prune the old dead branches, make room for new growth.  The same is true of ourselves.  The message given us by mother nature is not an easy one.  We are told, like the flowers, to allow our inner beauty to grow and blossom... to put aside... let go... of all that is old and dead.  Perhaps we haven’t done that for a while.  Perhaps we’ve held onto memories and thoughts which no longer serve us... keeping our growth smothered... struggling to bloom in spite of the weeds we’ve allowed to continue growing.

We need to prune ourselves right along with our trees and bushes.  The woodbine is impossible to pull for its roots twine around the roots of my azaleas and jasmine bushes.  It must be cut back as close to the ground as possible or it will smother my bushes and the bees, birds and I would be deprived of their beauty.

I have a weed much like that woodbine within myself.  It’s a part of me I don’t like and it grows without my noticing.  Sometimes I have to consciously look for it so I can keep cutting it back.   There are other weeds as well but most are not so hardy and stubborn as this one.

Isn’t is interesting, too, that the season of Lent coincides with the new birth of Spring?   A reminder that, as we tend to mother nature’s garden, we also must tend to the garden within ourselves.

We are an integral part of God’s garden.   In this wonderful season of Spring, may we all rise from our winter’s sleep and grow and bloom as God intends for us to grow and bloom!   Open your arms wide to the warmth of the sun.  Dance in the rain.  Grow!!

Love, Light and Joy to all!
Connie