Hope Springs

After a seemingly endless cold and dark winter, the sun has been shining in London for almost a week now. It is still cold, but there are glimpses of spring.

I love the changing of the seasons, especially this one. I find the winters hard to bear, the lack of sunlight in particular. You go to work in the dark, come home in the dark. And even during daylight, the sun is often hidden under a heavy layer of grey.

But for the last week or so, it has been light when I come out of the tube at 6.45 a.m. And I feel a shift in my heart. I think it is hope. That soon I will be able to shed my winter blues along with my winter coat, and put both away in the closet for another nine months. That life will be blooming around me in a few weeks time. The leaves on trees will fill out their skeleton frames. Flowers will break through the soil.

I have been ready for spring for several months now, with my heart filled every now and again with a deep longing for sunshine and warmth. But it was hard at times in the depths of February to believe it would ever come. It had been so cold and so grey for so long.

It is amazing how brief an appearance from the sun it takes to renew hope, to restore a little bit of joy, to move us out from under the clouds of despair.

I know there will be dark days again, but I am thankful today for the sun and these glimmers of spring, of hope, that will get me through them.