Hope Springs Eternal
Winter months are very strategically placed, I have always believed. We count down to these severely cold days with gradually cold Autumn evenings and we end the winter in relief with bright cheerful spring mornings. Autumn prepares us for winter while spring releases us from it, with a promise and joy of colours and sunshine. Autumn makes sure we are not thrown headlong into cold dark days, and Spring gives us something to look forward to when we are in those cold dark days. Sandwiched between these cushioning factors, winter is easier to bear.
I like to spend time planting tulip and daffodil bulbs in autumn. In life, some work is tiring but very satisfying, and planting bulbs ranks among that list for me. Digging and turning the soil to loosen the earth surface in order to plant the bulbs fills some of my autumn mornings with a deep sense of calm and joy.
When I end the task by covering the bulbs with the needed depth of soil lightly, I cannot help thinking about spring. Now why do I do that? My bulbs and I have a long winter ahead of us. What makes me think of spring, when the bulbs will bloom into flowers? We plant bulbs in Autumn, knowing we have a daunting winter ahead of us but secure in the knowledge that the bulbs will bloom into a riot of colourful flowers when winter is over and spring arrives. Nature has this certainty that after the cold winter, follows a bright cheerful spring. In Nature, hope springs eternal. The bulbs lie seemingly dormant under the hard ground all through the icy cold months while they are actually preparing for peeping above the ground in all their colourful splendour.
This brings me to thinking about human beings and hope. All of us go through many seasons in our lives, repeatedly. It would help if we believed that spring will come, in all our lives when we are passing through a winter of our life. Planning something for happier times, helps place our faith in a good future. Life obliges by making time go swifter when we have something to look forward to.
As Louisa May Alcott has said – “We all have our own life to pursue, our own kind of dream to be weaving. And we all have some power to make wishes come true, as long as we keep believing.”
Why not plant something yourself this winter with this deal at Groupon from Gardening Express: One (£12.50) or Three (£26) Fruit Trees, or Five Fruit Trees and Two Summer Berry Bushes (£29.99). Thats up to 70% off!
Beautiful !!
Its an excelent way of looking at life, with cold winter and warm thoughts of looking forward to autumn. It is more like Santa Claus promising happier time ahead.