More snow is forecast, but the days are getting longer, a certain energy of impending rebirth is in the air, and I am reminded of this little tree that I photographed earlier in the winter. I am not sure what kind of tree it is - perhaps a flowering almond? But it was the small blossoms braving a bitter cold wind that caught my eye one day. Spring was a long way off, but these little buds had opened, perhaps coaxed by the sun which had been especially kind on the days leading up to this.
I felt a kind of kinship to this young tree. How many bright March mornings had I thrown on a t-shirt and bounced out of doors expecting the first warmth of spring, only to meet a cold that would last weeks longer? Being creatures of nature, sensing and responding to the seasons, it is easy, and often tempting, to be fooled.
I thought, too, of how many times in my life I had felt driven, filled with an energy and certainty that the time for me to "blossom" had come. Time moved on and nothing happened, yet here I was ready to explode with potential. It was a painful and frustrating feeling, like all would go to waste. I did not understand.
Perhaps, after experiencing many cycles, this tree will learn to better gauge when the time is "right" to bloom. Whether it can or not, I do not know. I do hope it knows better than I did - to bloom in winter is not a waste.
To see a tree bloom in winter makes me smile.
It shares with me the energy to move forward, past the cold, toward something fresh and new - to start the cycle over again. I hope that, when seasons change, it will find the spirit to try again.