To Everything There Is a Season
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:”
Ecclesiastes 3: 1
“To be of the earth is to know
the restlessness of being a seed
the darkness of being planted
the struggle toward the light
the pain of growth into the light
the joy of bursting and bearing fruit
the scattering of your seeds
the decay of the seasons
the mystery of death
and the miracle of birth.”
John Soos
On my walk today, I saw a most amazing thing! Jonquils had pushed their heads up through a thick embankment of creeping juniper and were happily turning their buttercup faces to the sky. Such determination inspires and surprises me and makes me chuckle.
Spring is always a welcome event, especially after a bitter winter. Something about the sheer exuberance of it, the blooming doggedness of japonica shuddering in a chill March wind, the almost deafening clatter of birdsong, reassures me that indeed, there is a season for pure joy. Yesterday, I watched a red-headed woodpecker trying to drum his love song on an aluminum light pole. That had to hurt, but he was undaunted. This is the time for bursting forth in passionate love of sun and song and all things green and growing…and lady woodpeckers, of course.
What is perhaps less obvious about spring is that if we had not experienced the darkness and decay of the winter season, the mystery of death that it carries, we would be less likely to appreciate the energy and enthusiasm of rebirth and renewal. Knowing too that we will come again to winter, as the seasons inexorably turn, makes it all the more important to embrace and enjoy springtime.
Violets are riotously blooming in my yard this morning. They have flung open their tiny lavender wings to catch every drop of rain. People tell me they are weeds and should be plucked out, but I see them as messengers of hope in a season of joy.
Thanks be to God,
Jane
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