Hope is Birds Singing in the Cold Darkness

It's still dark out there and there are still small patches of snow. But the birds are singing I can hear them out there in the cold darkness. They are singing because they know that spring is coming, even though there very little evidence. Their song is a song of hope.

At this moment all is OK in my world. I'm not thrilled about three of the four court hearings we have to face in the next few weeks (one of them, April 22nd, we finalize the new boys, so THAT I am looking forward to). But for today, all is well. Today there is not anything too tough on my schedule today (a United Way Presentation in late afternoon is all) and the kids have been very well behaved this week.

But there are other days when things don't seem this hopeful. There are days when my world seems cold and dark. And I have to ask myself, "Do I have the strength to sing in those situations?"

Often, I probably do have the strength, but I just choose not to. I would rather moan. And the more negative things I say to myself, the more entrenched in that hopelessness I become.

But I'm vowing today to remind myself the next time things are dark and cold in my world, that I can still sing as the birds do. I can still sing because I KNOW that in the midst of every winter there is a spring ahead. Just as the birds carry that knowledge with them and burst forth into song, regardless of how cold and dark it may be at the end of winter.

I can't hear them anymore -- the birds outside -- because the noise of my house has taken over. The kids are starting to get up, the shower is on. But I know the birds are still there, and I know that they are still singing.

And maybe, just maybe, the next time the noises of my life drown out the sound of the birds singing, I will still remember that weather or not I can hear it, the song of hope plays on.