Looking for Spring, Looking for Hope

I am in Victoria this week, helping out with my grandchildren. I can't help but wonder what sort of world they will grow up in. When my youngest grandchild is my age, it will be 2080 - a staggering thought. I can sometimes get weighed down with these ponderings. So when the sun broke through the clouds this morning, I knew I needed to take myself off for a walk, looking for signs of spring. Which is very much akin to looking for signs of hope.  Before I'd turned the corner of the street on which my son and his family live, I discovered this clump of snowdrops. Such delicate flowers bursting through the still brown ground with determination and vigour.

A little farther along  the street I found these daffodil shoots. They won't be far behind. Already they're pushing aside the debris and detritus of last year in their reach for the light.

Potted primulas with their outrageously coloured flowers are being sold at the nearby grocery store, although it's a bit too early to see them in local gardens.

And even the fruit trees are beginning to bud. So many lessons here. Suddenly things don't look quite so dark and gloomy. It seems there's something about being connected to the natural world, about taking the time to notice the smallest of changes that are taking place, that keeps me connected to the whole of life, and reminds me that there have always been seasons, and times of light and times of dark, for a long, long time. And I am reminded too that our capacity to stand strong and withstand the not so pleasant bits of life is truly remarkable. When I returned to the house I was considerably cheered. And set right to work with my brightly coloured fabrics, and made another leaf.