The Coming of the Violets

   The Violets are blooming in a tiny front plot in front of my house. They were planted by my daughter one year without my knowing and every time they bloom they fill me with hope and joy. Hope because Spring is coming, and joy because someone did something so thoughtful for me and something so lasting. They are a dark rich purple and so delicate. Violets ~ the heralds of Spring.

  My six year old has also been bringing me Snowdrops the last few weeks and I put them on my kitchen windowsill. I spend a lot of time at the sink washing dishes and those Snowdrops bring me a lot of joy. Once when I was walking with my young children down our road an elderly lady was in front of her very old home in town. I asked her if I could pick some of her Snowdrops as they were a variety I had not seen. She was so kind and said yes and we engaged in conversation. She had been living on that street for years in a big old heritage house. Her husband had died and it was just her now. Those houses were so cold in the winter as I lived in one myself. Her yard was large and unkept but her Snowdrops bloomed every year. I kept my eye on that house and over time I realized she must have passed away or had to move. The house got torn down and the Snowdrops lost, but I will always remember them. That is something I always wonder about other people. Do they remembered old long gone gardens? I do and I miss them and cherish their memory. Someone's creativity and artistic soul sewed the seeds, tended the bulbs and brought light and scent and beauty to their neighbourhood. How noble  and how kind.

  It looks like the perfect Spring day today. The sky is a light pale blue, the farther taller mountains are capped with snow and the closer mountains are looking a dark hazy blue. The air is crisp as is the air. My husband and two younger children are playing croquet in the front freshly cut yard. It looks so beautiful. You wouldn't  know that for the last three months we have not had more than a handful of days of being healthy. In fact the last three weeks some of my children have been so sick that I have not been able to sleep more than just a few hours a night. Thankfully the four sickest children are doing better and one is totally well. The last two that were desperately sick are on their way to health again. I am so deeply hopeful that Spring will bring health to our home. It has been incredibly hard to a be a nurse 24/7 plus a mother and house keeper and cook and chauffeur and more without any days off or even hours off duty. I have struggled to keep on. 

 I am grateful this winter is almost over as it has been particularly dark and ominous for me. I just have trudged through it one day at a time praying for light and strength. This coming year will be one of hard work, of choosing over and over to do the next right thing, of making sure my mind and soul are filled with sustenance and all the goodness I can muster in. It makes the coming of the Violets especially sweet.