The Promise

I saw them today. Just barely there, but I saw them. They’re kind of like a promise aren’t they? Those tender, new green shoots poking their heads up through the frozen February ground. They're the promise that it’ll be over soon. This grey, shivering shroud of winter will soon be lifting. Giving way to bluer skies and the feel of warm sunshine on bare skin. Soon the earth will be green again and those dirty, grey mounds of snow ice will be just a melted memory. The promise of Spring. The promise of renewal. A world coming to life again after a cold Winter’s coma. They are a promise aren’t they? Those tender, new green shoots struggling up through the frozen February ground. They are a promise...or maybe they’re just really stupid plants that are about to freeze their buds off.