Today, while my pond is frozen, the landscape is covered with snow and the trees are leafless and brown I look at this photograph taken last summer and am reminded that the seeds of regeneration and beauty lie beneath the ice and snow.

The land will awake under the warm April sun, as green leaves and white and pink blossoms of spring adorn the brown branches of winter. The barren earth will come alive with splashes of color as grass, prairie flowers and other plants and herbs spring forth.

The myriad species of life in the pond water will awake from their winter hibernation and start the cycle of life once again.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb
on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"

Copyright 2008 - John Swift