Everyone loves spring, leaves unfolding, seeds sprouting, birds
singing and busily building nests. Spring always arrives, we appreciate
and enjoy it or it passes us by, because we are so busy, travelling
here and there, with little time to notice anything or stop to look.
This year it’s different.
We garden, dig, plant and sow and, like children, watch for new
growth, for a mist of green. Every day we take a walk along the
Comber Greenway, an old railway line near our house. It’s not a long
trek and it doesn’t have mountains, meadows or seascape; it’s not
Kearney, but there is so much to see. By the path, the trees and
hedgerows show new leaves in different shapes and shades of
green; bluebells, primroses and periwinkle peep out from the old
station platform, covered in greenery. Black cap warblers and robins
sing joyfully high in the trees, with few cars to dull the sound.
We walk past rainbows in the windows, pass by shells and stones,
placed on walls, painted by children with messages of peace and
love. We see people passing, spaced carefully, we say ‘hello’, smile
and wave, some ask us how we are or have a chat and it’s so good
to see them. This is a hard time, a time of loss and sorrow, of uncertainty
and restriction. But God, the Lord, who made all creation
and whose love never fails, is with us and comforts us through this
beautiful spring season.
