Lo How a Skunk Cabbage E'er Blooming

I went for a walk today and saw a most peculiar sight: skunk cabbage pushing up through the snow and ice! It reminded me of this plants dogged determination to burst forth absolutely as soon as the conditions allow. Of course in this case the right conditions were a false start, there must have been enough cold weather followed by enough warmth to trick it into thinking it was early, early spring.

It is kind of like the way some of us rush Christmas, or any good thing for that matter. Much as we try to deny it, the cycles of this life are necessary, whether it is just the cold and snow of winter, or it is the dark times and valleys of despair in our lives. In those moments we learn about what we need by what we don't have. It puts life into perspective. Just like people putting their lives back together in the Gulf region, we need to take a look at what we have, not what we have lost.

So maybe seeing the skunk cabbage as foolish isn't really fair. It will simply die back and return when the real spring arrives. Perhaps if we could ascribe thoughts to it, it might think, "oh well, that was fun while it lasted, now back to sleep!"

If nothing else, persistent, insistent green shoving its way in to the bleak gray and cold of this day is a sign of hope. Isn't that what we are trying to do in preparing for Christmas?