Three P-words (with a capital P!)

published April 7, 2011

in the Stockton Sentinel

Stockton, Kansas

            This is absolutely, positively the best time of the year. (I may have said something similar to that last fall, and I would have meant it then, too!) I’ve been flipping through seed catalogs and gardening magazines since the middle of February when they started arriving in the mail. It is refreshing and relaxing to look at pictures of flowers and other blooming things in the dead of winter. Like taking a pain pill, it helps deaden the pain of sub-freezing temperatures.

At this time of year, just when we think we can’t stand the dry, brown landscape any longer, little green things start popping out everywhere. Happy little crocus, daffodils and hyacinths are nothing short of eye-candy to an otherwise drab background.

Yes, I may have said I love the fall season because of the cooling temperatures and beautiful colors that it brings. But fall is more about withering and dying, whereas spring is all about new life, a fresh start, and promises of better times ahead. Spring is also about faith.

I believe planting bulbs for spring blooms is an act of faith. Despite a rather insignificant appearance, deep within the heart of each bulb there is a lot of potential and possibility, and the promise of something beautiful. The only reason we bury that dead-looking, onion-like thing in the dirt just before winter is because we have faith – faith in new beginnings, faith that a little bulb will make it through the winter, faith that life will bloom again. But nothing is possible for the bulb unless it is planted.

Like the bulb (or any other seeds we may plant), deep within our own hearts is a great deal of potential for becoming all we are meant to be, a great storehouse of possibility, and a promise of a life of fulfillment. But first, we must believe in what lies within us; we must believe in our own potential.

With the devastation that we’ve witnessed in recent weeks following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I can’t help but pause and pray for the thousands of people who are forced to begin again – with their homes, jobs, and futures – and I have faith that they, too, will bloom again.

Someone has said, “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” Therein lies the inner beauty of spring!  May we all take that to heart and move forward into this season of the year (and season of our lives) with three capital P-words in mind:  Possibility, Potential and Promise.