Friday Five: Signs of Hope, Signs of Spring

Sally in the UK, on RevGalBlogPals, says:

It has been a difficult week here in Dowham Market, and yet in the sadness there have been signs of real hope, young people, often criticised have shown us how caring and amazing they are. It has also been a strange week; it snowed for almost the first time this winter, and yet many of the spring bulbs are blooming, and the trees are blossoming!

I believe that if we look carefully we can see signs of hope all around us.... as for signs of spring... well you tell me....

Bluebells in my garden, before the snow!

What have you seen/ heard this week that was a :

1. Sign of hope?
SonShineIn, in the midst of a horrendous week for him at work involving conversion to a new software system, sent us a very funny piece of verse titled "Oh, I'm Just a Harmless Bacteriophage." (I may post it sometime if he OKs it.) I worry about his stressful life right now, even though he's making some positive changes, and it's good to see he maintains his creativity and sense of humor.


2. An unexpected word of light in a dark place?
Hmmm. It was the dark place that was unexpected. One of my cousins has adopted two children. The elder of the two had been having some serious problems at elementary school and was recently diagnosed with bipolar disease. Cousin had known when she fostered and adopted him that his maternal background was problematic; she now learned that in fact his mother was also bipolar. The word of light is that there is an agency here that provides mental health help for children and young people, he was hospitalized until his medications were stabilized, and is now home again. And, of course, the other word of light is my cousin's deep commitment to these children. I hope you will keep Isaac and his family in your prayers.


3. A sign of spring?
On our walk the other day, Rusty flushed some birds out of a bush. I'm not good at bird identification but they were certainly not birds I had been seeing all winter (which would be mostly crows and seagulls!), these were small brown and grey birds. (By the way, he was not trying to flush them, I'm not sure he even noticed!) As we have been having some sort of winter storm about twice a week, interspersed with sunny days and running gutters, this is the sign of spring I've been hoping for.
Well, that, and making my reservations for the annual Beach House Week with my oldest friends, on a barrier island off South Carolina -- it's not until May, but having it scheduled makes a big difference in my outlook!


4. Challenging/ surprising?
The news, which came to me via blog, that Cordeliaknits and her sweetie have exchanged "promise rings." There will be a number of hurdles for them, but they look so happy! And I can't complain too much about the blog communication, as OHP and I didn't tell our parents we were dating until we were engaged and about to marry....

5. Share a hope for the coming week/month/year....
Week: I have a hope that I don't want to blog about yet. And also, that the small group meeting I'm going to at Big Taupe Church will be of some help in getting us to a place where we will get a new senior minister and treat him/her right.
Month: That we will see many more signs of spring! An early spring would be so wonderful!
Year: That I will achieve half the goals I set out for myself in January.


Bonus play... a piece of music/ poem guaranteed to cheer you?

Dust of Snow

The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree

Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
----Robert Frost

This is one of the poems I have by heart. It speaks to me of how noticing the small joys in life can help us get through the big sorrows.
If you're not blogging the Friday Five, feel free to leave your own answers to the questions in a comment here!