Finally, I was able to see my lawn. After an unusually long, and cold winter it emerged from snow, dead and brown, yet ready to receive warmth of sun and promise of spring.

I flew out my back door with my rake in hand. I couldn’t wait to begin scratching up lifeless grass from last year and remove soggy and decaying leaves. The smell of warming earth filled me with joy.

I raked and raked obsessed with preparing soil for new tender shoots of green grass that would soon make their appearance. I felt exhaustion in my shoulders begin to creep in as I realized I was raking through an old bulb bed. As I cleared away leaves I spotted first crocus of season beginning to poke through ground in its delicate purple and white splendor.

I immediately stopped what I was doing and became aware of how amazing and precious life is. I was filled with sense of hope and renewal a single crocus can offer. There it was, my first tangible sign that spring was in fact here.

It got me thinking about amazing resilience of human spirit. With intensity of recent global events bombarding airwaves it’s no wonder I’ve been experiencing more underlying stress than usual and I notice those in my world deeply affected as well.

As humans we instinctively strive to sort out turmoil and transform our world into something stable and meaningful for ourselves. We need a sense of a safety and connection so we can function and stay engaged fully in our lives.

As Bernhard Kempler, PhD says, “ The issue of "resilience" comes up powerfully when we are faced with extreme situations, situations for which we have had little or no occasion to develop adaptive mechanisms. How does our psyche withstand such outrageous attacks as war, criminal violation, brutality, and even life threatening illness?”