unlight and warmth sure do make all the difference! Already, it seems like Winter was a figment of the imagination; like life was gone one minute & here the next. At the same time though, Winter has not been forgotten yet. It's still fresh in your mind how the situation used to be reversed – how it seemed as if life was here one minute & gone the next.

Isn't that our ultimate duality – how it's possible that reality just doesn't match up to what it was only minutes or seconds ago? Spring seems a regular reminder of this, with plant life ostensibly popping up all over, out of nowhere and before you know it.

Although plants usually aren't considered living, breathing beings, we know they are. They can become massive, towering beings, at that. What a huge responsibility a tiny seed has been born with then, to grow thousands of times its size! And not only that, but to eventually die, as well. The same responsibility all other living things are born with. Broken down in this way, it seems like such a monumental task that every thing is given! For humans, it's kind of like being hired into a job that we are clearly under-qualified for and having no other choice but to qualify ourselves... or do the best we can, knowing that sometimes our best will not be good enough. But... all we have is hope that 1 second from now, 1 minute from now, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 year, 10 years, a lifetime from now – we'll be glad we did.

So, in work and in life, I'm spending this Spring how I hope I'll be glad I did. I know I'll hear/feel a hundred different reasons (from as many sources) why I am under-qualified to do anything. But, I'd like to believe that sometimes you can have a hundred reasons not to do something, and only one reason to do it anyway. For me, that reason is giving – giving of my time, my thoughts, my abilities, my best intentions. In the process, I acknowledge life and accept it's dualities & responsibilities the best I can. I hear the birds & marvel at the plants. I bask in the warmth & paint in the sunlight.

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