Spring has sprung !  The daffodils are blooming all over town.  When I think of the spring season, I always think of daffodils.  The air smells different to me this time of year.  The birds sing loudly in the morning.  The sun stays up a wee bit longer in the evening.  I start wanting to wear pastel colored sweaters as I eagerly await our annual Spring Break trip to Mexico.  I love celebrating Easter and I eat way too many jellybeans. It feels good to let the sun shine on your face after a long hard winter, doesn’t it?  Spring is full of hope !

Springtime in Colorado can be a little unpredictable and that is why I love Daffodils !  Let me explain…. This is how daffodils grow in Colorado….   It will be a beautiful spring day and the daffodils are all abloom and glorious in their bright shiny yellow splendor and yes, you guessed it, a big snow storm will come and just bury them.  You can’t see them at all.  But you know what, in a few days, the snow begins to melt away and those little daffodils begin to poke their way through the snow.  They stand tall and they keep blooming.  Daffodils are the most hardy of spring bulbs.  Now if we use this analogy for life, it holds a lot of truth.  I would like to be like the daffodil who continues to bloom in the spring even when a snowstorm is determined to bury it.  Have you ever felt that way?  You are just coasting along in your springtime and WHAM out of nowhere you are hit with winter.  A loss of a job, a devastating diagnosis, a death of a loved one.  I am sure most of us can think of a time in our lives where we have felt like the little yellow flower just trying to survive the storm.

A master gardner once told me never to cut  back the green stems of the daffodils once they have bloomed.  Let them die naturally.  Through the beauty of photosynthesis the green part of the plant absorbs the sun and stores vital nutrients which allow the plant to survive the heat of the summer, the chill of autumn, and the freezing temperatures of winter.  How well you feed the plant in the spring determines how well the bulb survives the following year.

The same principal holds true for us.  If you find yourself in a routine time in your life, coasting, things going well, I encourage you to take this time to feed yourself.  Seek God first, Seek Him in extended stillness and solitude, Nurture your spiritual growth through God’s word.  Rejoice in the springtimes of life.  Store up the “nutrients” so that you too can be like the daffodil determined to bloom even if the winter wind blows.

” Springtime is when you feel like whistling even when your shoe is full of slush”- author unknown