Winter Thaw & Spring Renewal
As the snow melts and plants awaken from their wintery slumber, we also find ourselves energized by the new warmth nature offers. No longer are we burdened by our heavy coats and chores of shoveling snow, there’s a lightness of step in our ventures outdoors. Spring is an exciting time where nature revives and reinvigorates. What seemed dead and barren, becomes alive.
The Cycle of Seasons
Mother nature–so aptly called, as she shares her wisdom generously–shows us that our lives also follow a pattern of seasonal changes.We can see these changes from different perspectives if we take a step back– from birth to death, from morning to night or a flow of events that happens over our lifetime. In reality, the only constant is change.However, our perspectives tell us otherwise.
It’s All About Perspective
It’s human nature to feel what we are experiencing in the present to last indefinitely, especially if it is something negative. We all have felt time slow down when we are faced with a task we dread doing. There is ample research done on how negative events have a greater impact on us mentally than positive ones. They even named it “negative bias”. This “negative bias” isn’t as bad as it sounds. In fact, knowing your tendencies is productive. You can’t change what you don’t know.
It sounds too simple, but it can be as simple as reflecting on the positive around you and being grateful. Welcome so much positivity that the negative gets pushed out. The mental effort to change the way you think is like any physical training. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. There is no better way to describe this openness to good, than hope.
Hope Springs Eternal
Hope is a word that encompasses a feeling of the miraculous in the bleakness of situations. That sliver of light at the darkest of night. It is what brings up the fight in you to survive and thrive. We all need hope at some point in our lives. Some more than others.
For the organizers of Life for Relief and Development, hope is vital to the people it aims to serve. Life USA tirelessly searches for and provides anything necessary to ease the burdens of people in need. Our projects range, from scholarships, school supplies, orphan sponsorship, family support, infrastructure development, water sanitation, and emergency responses to natural disasters, the number of humanitarian projects LIFE has completed is vast.
We can see how important each project is by looking at the impact of a project on a personal level. The hope that is sparked when someone receives what is desperately needed at the most critical time, can make difficult situations easier to bear. Having hope can help to envision a future free from the present suffering. Hope can also be the trigger for creativity. That creativity can be used to take action to change a situation, or to see things from a different perspective, strengthening the mental resolve to endure. It is a reminder that all is not lost. Like the fading of winter into spring, things will get better, and everything will be okay.
