These past days have had their fill of waiting expectantly for the signs of spring. Nothing is more pleasing than that first daffodil. Amazingly it has made it through the winter and survived under recent blankets of snow and frost. At last it stands in full display sharing its beauty and color for all who pass by, to behold and enjoy.

City roadways and parks, take on such beauty, singing to us that spring has arrived and with that song a whole new hope is born, that all can be well. William Wordsworth described it best when he wrote I wandered lonely as a cloud… when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils. Although I learnt these words in school, only in older years have I come to enjoy their rhyme and their beauty. It’s time to learn these words once again because all too soon we forget!

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Prayer:
As winter wanes
so spring emerges.
As days lengthen
and the earth births flowers
so we hear the songs of spring,
so we behold the colors of spring
so we hold new hope.
May spring happen in all the dark places of my life.
May spring awaken my soul,
giving sight to my eyes
giving songs to my ears
giving strength to my resolve
giving hope to my heart,
that all things can be new,
once again. Amen.