Quote of the day: “Just as certain seeds require a forest fire to crack open their shells, crisis burns away our limited self-concepts, allowing our deeper nature to come forth. We must remember that our suffering carries the seed of our salvation; our problems are actually our answered prayers, and our darkness really is the light in potential.” ― Derek Rydall, Emergence: The End of Self Improvement
Siberian Squill Flower from my garden
Springtime is a time of emergence, transformation, resurrection. It reminds me that the small deaths of fall and the long dormant gestation of winter are as important as the re-emergence of life each spring.
Growing up on a farm, I was ever aware of the cycles of life—cycles of sowing and reaping and quiet fallow time—turning round again each year. And even now, living in a city where winter lingers far longer than I like, the seasons remind me that every life has its own cycles—seasons of joys, sorrows, good times and difficult times—that shape and form us.
Wood Ducks in the pond
Each spring feels like a miracle to me.
The snow and ice melt away one day and flowers emerge the next.
The ice on the pond behind our house melts and the ducks arrive in large numbers, turtles sun themselves on logs we’ve left at the edge of the pond, and spring peeper frogs start calling at night.
Life pulses and sings. You can almost feel the prana in the air.
The life force is so strong!
Spring peeper frogs seek out deep crevices or cracks in logs or rocks or dig down as far as they can in leaf litter. Parts of them may freeze but a high concentration of glucose in the frog’s vital organs prevents them from freezing. A partially frozen frog will stop breathing, and its heart will stop beating. It will appear quite dead. But when it warms up above freezing, the frog’s frozen portions will thaw, and its heart and lungs resume activity.
Resurrection!
In the middle of winter it is hard to imagine that spring will ever arrive. But sure enough, each year spring does arrive and life transforms and resurrects itself once again.
Sometimes the seed of who we need to become requires the fire of challenges to transform. And sometimes we simply endure until spring arrives again to remind us that amidst all the pain and sorrow, joy and beauty exist.
I will never suggest that suffering is necessary to grow because I don’t believe that is true. But I know that most of the things that have caused me frustration, grief and sorrow in my life have also been the reason for joy, growth, and wisdom.
I don’t know of anyone who gets through life without suffering and sorrow. We never know when tragedy will knock on our door—illness, accident, senseless violence, destructive mud slide, disappearing airplane, ferry filled with kids that capsizes and sinks—surprising us with it’s fury.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the beauty when terrible things happen.
But through it all beauty remains.
May you experience the joy and beauty of life along with the sorrows.
May you walk in beauty.
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