By Jane A Malkoff MSN RN NP
Another Springtime is another opportunity to acknowledge emerging hopes and opportunities. Injustices, feelings of regret, experiences of loss and COVID19 do not stop the spring season from occurring. With Springtime, there is a certainty. Hope is here and calling for us to notice.
How can we utilize the wonder of this season to raise our hope regardless of our circumstances? Here are a few insights I have gleaned from many wonderful experiences with older adults over the past 30 years.
- Slow down, be kind and enjoy the opportunity of being alive. A lifetime goes by in the blink of an eye and most things are not as important as they seem.
- Speak thankfulness at every opportunity.
- Take time/make time with the people who matter most.
- Self-care is the breeding ground of hope and the best preparation for what is yet to come.
Experience can bring forth in each of us this sort of excellence about life. Life experiences, including the struggles, ignites the “Springtime” insights in each one of us.
A Springtime awakening will not reverse or prevent all injustices. It will not change a past wrong doing or relieve the pain cause by the loss of a loved one. Yet, what it can do is support, uplift, and encourage us immensely. It can also strengthen our engagement in the world around us. If we allow it, it will lead us forward into a renewed place, a sweet spot, we will discover inside and outside of ourselves.
Happy Spring!
“Come with me into the woods. Where spring is advancing, as it does, no matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”
–Mary Oliver