Revived

THE REWAKING
Sooner or later
we must come to the end
of striving

to re-establish
the image the image of
the rose

but not yet
you say extending the
time indefinitely

by
your love until a whole
spring

rekindle
the violet to the very
lady's-slipper

and so by
your love the very sun
itself is revived.

- William Carlos Williams

The theme of renewal this month - of spirit, heart, and mind - has a beautiful resonance for me. The limning of new green on the tree branches outside my study speaks to the budding of hope and expectation within. There is something about spring that nudges us to get on with it. To pluck our rusty dreams up and tinker them back into play. To rethink the impossible or the challenging and build a bridge to somewhere. Perhaps just to throw the window open and breathe deep of the sunshine and colors of spring.

This poem by William Carlos Williams is a favorite. "The Rewaking" reminds me that some essential essence of life and joy may be re-found through the mysteries of love. That reality and the real dance in many robes of perception, and the presence of happiness reshapes all things. The poet speaks of love as a force of nature capable of reviving even the sun. The imagery of this for me is powerful, because the concept of revival brings us back to something that weariness may make us believe we have lost. Lost to the grinding darkness of winter, the pressures of work and responsibility that take us far from where we might even notice the violet color of a flower in the garden. The colors of happiness, "the image the image of the rose."