Everything springs to life

February

Have you noticed yet that the mornings are getting lighter? It is one of those signs that we get that lets us know that spring is not that far away. It is inspiring especially when we get dull dark days and think that winter will never end.

I was never a keen gardener, my mother was though and she delighted in her tiny patch that she called her garden. I was most disinterested when she talked about gardening, and it was only much later I developed an interest in it. I find it relaxing and feel motivated to want to make the best of it. When I first started I was so surprised when I saw new shoots forming in the first days of spring. It had looked as though the garden was dead, but underneath the soil, eveything was happening. It is great when everything springs to life, and despite the cold and frost, things do survive. I did have some friends living in Vermont, and they could get very little to grow after thier winters of -25. They used to envy our bulbs coming up in spring. They have moved to warmer climates of America now so can grow things more easily.

Relationships can grow as if from tiny seeds, and we need to develop them and watch them grow as we nurture them. The problems arise when we don't take care of them. Sometimes we trample on relationships and expect them to survive. Some do, but they need specialist attention to allow the relationship to grow again. Some are trampled so much that nothing would allow them to grow again.

Do you, or have you ever been trampled on? What did you do to encourage it to grow again?

Siberian winter

February 1st.

Looking out through the window, it looks so cold and snowy, I am glad to be indoors, although I did consider taking the dog out for a short walk.

The more time we spend indoors in the winter, the more time we have to think. I know someone who is so caught up in what happend in the past, they think they ahve to live their life now with the same thoughts and feelings from the past. Usually we are angry because things did not go the way we wanted them to. We see and experience the world through our eyes, and through our experiences. We would like others to see it through our eyes too and through our model of the world, but seldomn they do because they have had different experiences. When couples are together they often mold into each others way, especially if the relationship is good. I think it is what my mother used to refer to as give and take. I call it being in harmony with those closest to us. Yet often the harmony is broken down, by misunderstandings, and by us and others thinking we should see things our way. We try to put old heads on young shoulders, but we all have to learn by experience. Often we can see the pitfalls that people are going to fall into, but until they can see it for themselves or experience it, they will not listen or change in any way. Sad sometimes, because we often see things happening to our kids, but there is little we can do to stop it happening, because they have yet to see it another way.