Opening Day

It is somehow fitting that today is opening day for the Chicago Cubs.  With a late winter/early spring that found temperatures in mid-July form, a rebirth was beginning - trees started budding, flowers poked through the ground, the ivy was turning green on the outfield wall and a new management team was in place on the north side.  And this Sunday is Easter, probably the ultimate expression of rebirth.   Spring is the time for waking from a long winter slumber - not the hibernation of the bears but the dreary, sun-shortened days of winter.  It's a time for freshening your home, for a new spring wardrobe and renewed energy as the daylight hours are longer.  It's a time to come alive again, to live fully once again, to permit yourself a fresh start.  Through the difficult days of winter, through difficult days of loss, it is comforting to know that things do get better, that life goes on, that the spring will follow the winter.