The Story Behind “Rise”

Each year I find myself still thrilled with spring. Springtime is a time of new beginnings for me, a time for fresh life to flow through me, and a time of creation and celebration. Maybe it’s because I was born in April!

I grew up in a place where the winters could be a bit too long, drawn out, and overly gray. When it came time for the Robins to return and the snow to give way to the patches of light green sprinkled on the newly-exposed rich, wet, brown earth, I always got excited. Life became a friendlier time with smiles, nods, and person-to-person recognition that all is not solemn and hidden away.

My brother, sister, and I used to lay a blanket out on our cement porch on those sunny early March days when the temperature headed all the way up into the high 40s. For us kids, basking in that sun felt warm and cozy after all we’d been through!

Of course there’s something bigger going on with all of this. It’s about life’s sense of rejuvenation- life offering another chance to become more alive and to live with a renewed belief in our dreams.

As I write this from my Northern California home, there are new flocks of songbirds appearing for their annual concerts, fascinating wildflowers blooming here and there, as well as beautiful flowering trees showing off their brilliant yellows and hot pinks again.

Rise is about the celebration and anticipation of still better days to come somehow, some way in this world of ours. It’s about how new growth can also bring new experiences.

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