One Day

It’s April. It’s cold. Easter was early this year. It’s supposed to be warm after Easter. But the tilt of the planet has something else to say about the chill in the air.

Yesterday we drove to a concert in western Jersey. On the way out there the woods were winter gray. While we heard young talented students play Bach, Chopin, Beethoven, Ravel, and List the sun shone, the temperature lifted and stuck around sixty blessed degrees. As we drove home, the woods had a deep red cast. Buds had pushed out, invited by the sun its warmth. There was no longer a tracery of stark grey lines, there was lace. After we got home, we went over to see my mother in law. And there stood a crab tree, exploding with a color somewhere between lavender and pink. One day, one single day of warmth had created a new environment. There is no going back now.

There are moments in all our lives, no matter how deep our winters, no matter how long we’ve waited for some sort of thaw, moments when warmth from far beyond our efforts offers possibilities of growth and bloom. Too often our frustration and fear demand that we remain bundled in the winters that have defined our exhausting days and sleepless nights. Too often the inertia of our dark normality freezes us in spite of glowing moments that offer another possibility.

We were not meant to survive, we were meant to live. I guess that’s what Easter’s about.