Winter’s End / Winter Hope

Image: http://brushstrokesbykc.blogspot.ca/2009/12/winters-hope.html

Winter’s End

Winter in Canada holds on like the hands of grief. Just when you feel sure it has passed and your heart expands with hope for the warmth of spring, you awaken to the world blanketed in another – yet another – layer of snow!

Just when the grass was again visible and the birds were singing your wistfulness…. it returns as if it were December 1st!

Like heartbreak, we forget each season how long it lasts even though, from experience, we know too well!

That just when it seems we can finally move on, the bitter winds or the snow come back as a reminder.

So….

Is there anything else to do but enjoy it?!

Is there not some joy to be found in a season that forces us inside, warm under the blankets, cuddled up with a hot mug? That, like grief, forces introspection, quiet time, solitude, and sorrow?

For it reminds us what hope feels like and how hope never dies, no matter how many times the snow returns. Winter reminds us of our hearts’ longings and our aspirations for warmer times.

Most of all, when it finally one day is gone leaving only the promise of its return….

it leaves us with the sweetest feeling of gratitude for the sun on our faces.

By Hailey T.