Signs of Hope, Signs of Spring Friday 5

Sally says: "It has been a difficult week here in Dowham Market, and yet in the sadness there have been signs of real hope, young people, often criticised have shown us how caring and amazing they are. It has also been a strange week; it snowed for almost the first time this winter, and yet many of the spring bulbs are blooming, and the trees are blossoming!I believe that if we look carefully we can see signs of hope all around us.... as for signs of spring... well you tell me....Bluebells in my garden, before the snow!What have you seen/ heard this week that was a :"

1. Sign of hope? They do abound. And as I write that I rather marvel. There are a lot of things going on that are....unsettling.....in my life, in lives around me, in the world...and yet, I find my self hopeful and grateful that signs of light and life and God's presence seem to crop up and prevail. As Sally mentioned in her blog, when tragedy happens, it is incredible the responses that can occur. We saw this in our own communinty after the bus crash in the ways in which people from literally all over the world came forward to express concern and share that they were praying for the victims and their families and ask if there was anything that was needed. I am seeing it in my own time of struggle in the ways in which support and caring is literally pouring down and lifting me up, and also in the ways in which God is using this to work on me as as internally transforming experience....all hope, all the time.

2. An unexpected word of light in a dark place? After tai chi last night I had a chance to sit and talk with a friend that I haven't had time to connect with for a while one to one. She was my dog walking buddy all last spring and summer and we saw each other almost every day. When I started teaching, we lost that contact and have kind of drifted. Even though we are in Bible study and Tai chi together it's not the same as that one on one connection we'd had. We we able to re-connect at that level last night and I was able to share with her a lot of the struggles that are going on in my life right now. She was so supportive and wonderful. It was a good reminder that I have even more people than I always remember who will carry me through whatever this struggle brings.

3. A sign of spring? Well it was below zero again this morning, yesterday and the day before it snowed. But someone told me they did see some geese coming in and there is certainly more light and that is always a good thing. The snow tends to melt off faster when it does fall, it's slushy a lot! We are cautiously optimistic in these regions about spring until May.....

4. Challenging/ surprising? Two days ago if you asked me what I was doing the last weekend in March I would have told you I was going to a meeting at church, probably doing laundry, getting groceries, the usual. Well, as of yesterday....plans have changed and I'm going to the BE! Pretty surprising and for someone who is not really a spur of the moment kind of person...kind of challenging as well. But, life is short. I'm having dessert first.

5. Share a hope for the coming week/month/year....To be gentle with myself and those around me as I search for truth and authenticity.

Bonus play... a piece of music/ poem guaranteed to cheer you? I don't know that it's "cheer" exactly, but my security blanket this month is Give Me Jesus by Fernando Ortega.