I went in search of spring

Many of my waking hours are spent in what I affectionately refer to as a bunker. Concrete block wall, piped in air ventilated from the floors above. The area around me is a bee hive of activity, lit by fluorescent light. Yearning for sunshine and flowers, I would find myself staring at images of flowers on web pages and lingering in front of displays of tulips and daffodils in the local grocery store. Then, one mid-March evening, when visiting a friend who lives down in the valley of Zena, while walking back to my car, I took a deep breath and my senses were treated to the aroma of the earth. There it was, what I had been yearning for, that deep pungent fragrance of moist dirt. Dirt that was ready to explode with the small shoots of crocus, daffodils and tulips.

Early the next morning, with tea cup in hand, slippers on my feet, bathrobe tucked around me as protection from the early spring chill; I stepped into my back yard to explore what was under the dead leaves covering my flower beds. My efforts were rewarded. There, tender and vulnerable, were the shoots of daffodils, just beginning to emerge from the semi frozen earth. I was filled with hope for spring- visible now in these tiny little pre flowering plants, powerful in their own right as the precursor to the mature plant. Now, each morning as I head back into the fluorescent light filled work space, I carry the glimmer of hope, knowing the cycle of life continues, and I’m grateful to be part of it.