More than once, I’ve had a friend comment, “I forget how short you are until we’re standing side by side!” When I’m running on all cylinders, my personality can be big, masking things like my height (or depression). I’ve always liked that about myself, being more than what I seem (dare I say bigger on the inside?).

I’ve been watching the slow and steady growth of an amaryllis bulb I was given for Christmas and using it as a reminder to appreciate my own progress in this new year. It’s to the point I can see the color coming through the leaves – I imagine it building and deepening, eager to be revealed, but also reveling in this sort of secret it’s been keeping. I know one day I’ll walk in my kitchen and there it will be! But I don’t know when; I simply have to trust that it’s coming.

I just finished reading the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. In addition to giving me a new perspective on the multi-year winter I’ve endured, May reminded me that life is cyclical, rather than linear. Yes, it’s winter now, but winter is not the end. Spring will follow. Meanwhile, there is important work to do – things we don’t make time for when the weather calls us to plant and play or reap and prepare. When it’s winter, there’s little else we can do but go inside (literally and figuratively) and do the work that waits for us there.

Like my amaryllis, there has been work happening inside me, and I’m beginning to see the growth and color change. Nature will eventually reveal something gorgeous. Until then, I will enjoy the anticipation.