Mixed Signals

While the rest of the country has been in a deepfreeze, spring has been popping up in the Northwest. It's hard not to get excited about the daffodils that have sprouted in the back yard and to see them as proof that spring is surely well on its way. Can nature be fooled? Can her little babies be confused?

There are signs around me that this year holds surprises in store for us. I have snowdrops blooming in the back yard. Bulbs I have never planted and have never seen here. Not even in those first springs on Copeland Street, that were preceded by icy winters. We did have a bout of super cold (for the Northwest) winter for a few weeks... We have had an unusually warm and sunny January. I saw bulbs coming up at work too that I've never seen before. The squirrels were super active last fall, digging furiously in new places. Perhaps we're seeing the stashes they never needed?

I like it. I choose to read it as a sign of hope and happy things in unexpected places at unexpected times. If you don't spend enough time just being, just sitting still, these are just events. When I'm being still enough, aware enough, present enough, these are beautiful gifts.