The Winter Winds

Hoping for Spring

A couple of weeks ago I was excited by the arrival of the seeds for my garden. I have been looking forward in anticipation for the coming growing season and the end of the snow and cold that has taken over the last two weeks. In my excitement and anticipation for being out in my garden I forgot that we still have to get through January, February and part of March (last year we had to get through April and early May as well).

The second half of 2013 was, well, hard. My grandfather was diagnosed with melanoma and was aggressively attacking his body. After fighting through the pain my grandfather died in late October as the cold winds starting blowing in from the north.

During this time my dad was working with a pretty stubborn cough. After we had finished our Thanksgiving meal my mom and dad revealed to us that there was a spot on dad’s lung that was possibly cancerous. Dad went for a multitude of tests and the doctors had decided that the best course was surgery to remove part of, if not all of, dad’s right lung.

They ended up removing the whole lung and the surgeon was confident that they had removed all of the cancer. Dad came out of the surgery and spent the first few moments after he woke up flirting with my mom, telling us that the absence of a lung on the right side would just make him “lean a bit farther to the left,” and cursing Richard Nixon for sending him to Vietnam.

His recovery from surgery was slow, but progress was happening. You could sense that things were getting better. Several of his former co-workers remarked to me that he looked good and was upbeat about beating cancer and going on with his life. His boss told me that dad had told him he was looking forward to going back to work.

On Sunday January 12, 2014 a warm wind was blowing in from the south. You could feel the hope that Spring might be coming after several months of sadness, mourning and unease. My dad, I guess sensing this hope, was excited about the sunshine and warmer temperatures and went out for a walk. He returned to his home bloodied from a fall. His remaining lung gave out and his heart stopped.

There are still almost two months left in winter. My sadness over the death of my father has left me feeling the bitter winds from the north. I know that in time the winds will shift, and life will spring forth again from the Earth. I know that there is hope in the Resurrection. The Earth will continue its cycle of birth, death and rebirth. I hold onto this hope.