This is what hope looks like

Here in our part of the country, winter tends to, what shall I say, linger?  Drag?  Seemingly never end??  How do we get through the days upon days of grey, cloudy skies?  Ice and snow covered surfaces?  Mounds of plowed, dirty snow everywhere you look?  Freezing temperatures?  

It doesn't take much.  

Yesterday we had a break in the wintry weather and experienced temps of almost 60 degrees all day!  It was delightful to don only mild layers and hats to go on a walk with the kids.  It felt so wonderful to be out in the fresh air and to not be cold.  If you would have asked me to describe the day from memory I would have told you it was a gorgeous, spring-like day, full of warmth and sunshine.  But, upon looking at the pictures I took I realized that is not what the day was actually like...  yes, it was warm, but the sun was hardly shining and I'm not sure it was quite yet spring-like.  So, I guess this is what hope looks like.  The warmer temps remind us that spring is coming.  The joy of the kids jumping in muddy puddles and racing about the slushy piles of mostly melted snow - it's hope, hope for the things to come.

I think there is a lesson in that.

Winter [weeping] may endure for the night, but spring [joy] comes in the morning.

(italics mine)