I was in the hospital for a week, due to complications surrounding his birth.   When I had entered the hospital it was raining.  The signs of spring had not yet emerged and the world was gray and drab, and still somewhat cold.  It rained much of the time I was in the hospital, as if the heavens were mourning with me.  I dreaded leaving the hospital, knowing that my arms would be empty when I departed; however, the thing that I really remember about coming home from the hospital wasn't that my son wasn't with me, but instead how amazed I was to see how the world had changed in my absence. 

           
The signs of spring were all around me in the budding of the trees, the green baby leaves...the fresh turned soil with new flowers...daffodils, tulips, and the arrival of the green, green grass once again.  I realized anew that spring, and more especially Easter, is a time of rebirth.  Seeing the beauty in the world around me rejuvenated my spirits and helped me to feel as though my strength and daily peace could be renewed as well.

Every year as Easter arrives, I see the signs of spring emerging in the world around me and I think back on the feelings that I had on that beautiful day when I entered the world around me again.   I try to concentrate on that feeling... the feeling of rebirth, freshness, new life… It helps me to once again "renew" my spirits, so to speak, and to remember that everything I am currently going through will also eventually pass away and will bring about new and beautiful changes in my life.