It's the first week of Spring...a new season...a time of new beginnings.
As I take a walk around these five acres that called to me just two years before, with overgrown bushes, dying trees and neglected structures calling for renewal, I take stock of the damage caused by this winter's wind storms - small trees supporting their fallen comrades, poplars lying on the ground snapped off low at the trunk.
I climb the winding trail to the top of the ridge, and I see signs of new growth - new grass making its way through the old; bloodroot blossoms appearing through the fallen weeds of last Fall; the trees starting to bud; the forsythia becoming a bright yellow.
I reach the top of the ridge and hear the frogs chanting in the swamp below. As I listen to their night time chants drown out all other sounds, I reflect on the storms of my own life these past few years, and the damage that almost broke my marriage - until one fateful day last fall, an accident that saved it.
As I walk these woods and see new life emerging even through all the fallen and dead trees, these signs of Spring remind me that with each new day there is a new beginning...and I am grateful that I too have been given several.
Close friends are well aware of the troubles my husband and I have endured. Some would think that his accident and the stresses that came with dealing with his new disability would end our marriage. But the opposite has happened...through tragedy, we were given a new beginning for our life together - we have grown closer than ever before. We look at what could be, rather than what has been. Rather than anger and despair, we forgave and are more grateful for each other, for the support of friends and family, and for all that had been given to us...and the blessings continue with each new day. I took time off to be with him, and I'm finding that with each day as he grows stronger, I grow stronger - in my love, my hope, and my faith...for my husband, and for my own life.
Each day, each moment is a new beginning to start anew - to be inspired and to create the version of yourself and your life that you imagine it to be. Thank you, Universe, for new beginnings.~Linda Spencer
