Winter to Spring; Despair to Hope

It somehow seems appropriate that the last day of winter is another overcast and dreary day here in the Ozarks.
Tomorrow, the first full day of spring will be partly sunny and warmer temperatures, but today is very representative of the gloom of winter.

Even while time passes and the sun makes its way into the northern hemisphere, for many people the gloom of winter will continue. For some reason, an awareness of the many people that are suffering from some kind of depression has come to me. I'm not sure why that is; only that it is.

Statistically, a significant number of the people that we relate to every day are clinically depressed. Most of them are undiagnosed and therefore untreated. I'm not sure what this says about our society today. I only know that there are far too many people living life under a dark and dreary cloud.

I wonder if this has always been the case and we are just getting better at recognizing and diagnosing depression, or if the stresses of life and our abilities to deal with them have grown at disproportionate rates.

There is no doubt that life can be stressful. And I think that the rules of competition have changed greatly as the gap between the haves and the have nots continues to grow. I also think that social rules have changed greatly with the advances in technology, perhaps at a rate that exceeds our ability to adapt. We are social creatures, but our social communities have less defined boundaries. We are, in many ways, less sure of who we can trust and more isolated than ever before. We have the world at our fingertips and yet we are alone. We are isolated and yet exposed.

Although we would often like to disconnect from the grand network, we also need it for the information and resources that it provides. We have come too far to go back and yet we are unsure if we are heading in the right direction. We move forward cautiously and with a certain amount of fear of the unknown.

It is my hope that as winter gives way to spring, despair can give way to hope; as the clouds give way to the sun and nature comes to life, we, too, can begin to grow a little.

And we can learn from the change in seasons--the clouds, the rain, the snow, the cold, the death of things are all necessary to bring about the abundant life of spring.

Plants die in the fall. Seeds fall to the ground. Some become food for the birds and other creatures and some are dormant throughout the winter. Snow covers them in the winter, and in the spring they burst forth in new life!

Seasons are for change.
It is the way of things.

Be well, my friends!

John <><