Roots & Wings

Hello, Darling,

Did you see the newest issue of the magazine? The spring 2015 issue of Hello, Darling should have arrived in your mailbox. We continued the conversation about all things brave by looking at what it’s like in the middle. We’ve committed to brave pursuits – parts have gone well, parts have not. We’re becoming and we haven’t yet become. This issue is about taking steps, recognizing successes and failures, and going the journey together. We’re continuing the conversation on the blog with more voices this month, and we hope you’ll join us in our pursuit of brave things.

If you didn’t get your issue go to mops.org/ myaccount/membership.php to subscribe. Then forward your confirmation to magazines@mops.org, and we’ll put this current issue in the mail to you as our way of letting you know we’re so glad you joined our community.

Warmly,

Jackie Alvarez
Executive Managing Editor

Spring is messy. It’s a melty, drippy metamorphosis between winter and summer. The season offers glimpses of hope toward long, sunny days wrought for recreation, but remains loyal to winter temperatures. It sometimes seems there is one step forward to the summer and two steps backward toward the dead of winter.

For me, the first robin sighting of the year marks the arrival of spring. It’s the new beginning, the emergence from the nest. It’s the sign that I can come out of winter’s hibernation.

Spring brings buds to trees that have weathered the cold, dark season. Trees that have sunk their roots deep into the earth creating an underground matrices of support and seeking out the nutrients in the soil. Roots give a tree stability, longevity, fortitude.

Trees give birds a place to live and to launch. They can take flight from their nest to great heights, soaring seemingly outside the forces of gravity.

Brave pursuits are a similar messy metamorphosis. We need roots to ground us as we make brand new attempts. We need moments where we can feel the wind beneath us as we reach new heights. We take two steps forward into our new pursuit, and suddenly find ourselves one step back.

In the middle of this year of pursuing brave things, courage can be found again by remembering over and over those moments — however tiny they may be — of launching from our nests and taking flight.

May you find strength from your roots as you stretch out your wings.