A Day of Hope

“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.”

Bern Williams

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Anne Bradstreet

“All through the long winter, I dream of my garden. On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar.”

Helen Hayes

When I decided to write something in honor of the vernal equinox, the first day of Spring, I couldn’t choose which of these three quotes to use. They all speak to me. So you’re getting all three.
Spring does represent hope to me. The long winter is officially over. The sun will linger longer in the sky. The plants will bathe in it.
I finished the colossal work of weeding at 6 p.m. on the first day of Spring. Everything is clean and ready for the season of growth. I found new buds hidden in the weeds. I uncovered hyacinths. The buds on the cherry trees have exploded into flowers.
Hope explodes.

An alcoholic woman I sponsor is in intensive care today with bleeding in the brain following a head injury. She’s unable to tell us what happened. She’s unable to communicate because it looks like her language center is severely impaired.
What we know is that no one heard from her for over two days, and a bag of groceries sat on the table with the lettuce turning to mush. We know she was incoherent from a head injury when she was found Friday by the police after a concerned friend called them. She was malnourished and severely dehydrated.
We know that four large, empty bottles of mouthwash were found in her trashcan outside the house. We know that she has struggled to stay sober ever since giving up some years of sobriety on a drunken spree last year.
And I know that this time she was very excited by a newfound sense of surrender and she was happy to have three months sober.

For someone who suffers from alcoholism, alcohol is cunning. The disease is almost a living beast with powerful claws and teeth that sink deep into a person who is unarmed against it. To keep it at bay, recovering alcoholics have to maintain a daily close spiritual contact with a Power greater than alcohol. Recovery takes a lot of courage and vigilance. It isn’t for sissies.
The reason I’m relating this story on a day of hope is this: For anyone who is an addict/alcoholic, or who loves an addict/alcoholic, the disease only seems to be hopeless. There is a Power greater than the disease. Millions of people have tapped that unsuspected inner resource and have been released from bondage. I’m powerless to save someone who suffers from addiction, but there is Someone who can, and who will, if He is sought.

Today hope springs eternal.