Spring Miracles

My beloved lilac bush that sits adjacent to my home got pummeled this past winter.  More than six feet of snow landed on it. Plus  the snow that needed to be shoveled off of the roof fell on it.  Many branches snapped and the ones that remained intact arched to the ground with icicles dangling. I was so overwhelmed with the shoveling, the roof raking, and the endless ice dams I pretty much gave up on the lilac bush's survival.

Evidently once again I underestimated the power of  solid roots and the miracles of spring. My lilac bush has never looked more beautiful or smelled more lovely in the years I have been here.

That lilac bush is the perfect metaphor of life. We have all lived through snapped branches, and the piling and piling of life on top of us. People have given up on us and we may have given up on ourselves. Then spring comes and somehow we are more vital, more joyous and stronger both in spite of life's storms and because of life's storms.