My tree is blooming and is covered in pink and white.  I am not sure I have seen her so full. She must be loving all this rain.

I am reminded each year, as she blooms in the middle of winter, that when life is at its darkest the most growth can be done.  Hope isn’t seeing a tree full of leaves and knowing it will bloom, but instead, seeing a tree of sticks and still believing it will bloom.  To have hope in the darkest of days is the work of the brave.

Risk that the mystery of your being is trustworthy. ~ Gerald G. May

Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair.  ~Thomas Merton 

I was recently introduced to this very simple prayer.  I have been praying it several times a day.  It brings my heart hope and reminds me I don’t need to count on myself.  

Lord have mercy. 

Thee I adore.

Into Thy Hands.  

And I leave you with Rabbi Kook.  This little poem reminds us that our present circumstances are not tomorrow’s circumstances.  Life is fluid and change does come.

Nothing remains the same,

everything is blooming,

everything is ascending,

everything keeps increasing in light and truth.