DeacPost “Green Shoots in Winter”

[Several months ago I came across this poem – part of an obituary in my local newspaper. I don’t know either the person who wrote it or the person that died, but I was touched deeply and I hope you are, too.]

Midwinter
Remind me that in deep midwinter
Green shoots wait beneath the snow
And patient Nature wraps her arms
Around her shivering children,
Promising Spring.
Comfort me that time goes by
And all things change
Without my wishing.
The sun will rise, the river flow
Without my pushing.
For I have strained against a door
That opens on the other side
And wasted time in never-never land,
Though time is all I ever had
Or ever will.
Sylvia T. O’Neill (2012)

Prayer: Dear God, Remind us that green shoots wait for us in the snow of winter and that you own the nature that wraps her arms around us. Remind us that it is You who are in charge and that You are constant, whatever it is that goes on around us. Thank you for the surprises of life, if only we would see – even poems in the obituaries. Amen

Deaconess Phyllis Pleuss, Madison, WI

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