Of all New England’s seasons, winter exerts the most power over us. Under the cover of darkness, it conspires to make us uncertain and uncomfortable. It freezes our pipes. It abruptly cancels school and other important appointments. It piles snowdrifts up against our doors and in our paths, so we must fight just to get out of the house. It sends our cars skidding off the road. It occasionally throws our feet skyward and lands us on our backsides with a sound thump just to remind us who is boss. And when it is feeling particularly perverse, it coats everything in ice, tearing down trees and wires, depriving us of power and heat in such a spectacular display of beauty that we are somehow thankful for our misery. By March, we are very tired of being pushed around.

So when winter tried to bully its way into April this week, casting a cold, wet blanket over daffodils, forsythia, and magnolias in bloom, we were rooting without equivocation for a vernal victory. At first glance, a contest between driven snow and the soft petals of new spring blossoms seemed a little unfair. How could something so new and delicate stand up to something that has been so harsh and dominating these past few months? But that was before we remembered that for nearly a month since the equinox, the whole world has been tilting against the snow. In its slow celestial dance, the earth is constantly turning its cold shoulder into the warming sun. So the merest sprouts in the ground and the most delicate buds on the trees have heaven and earth arrayed in their favor at this time of year.

The unusual encounter between the snow and the flowers this week should encourage us all to have a little more faith in the durability and possibility of tender beginnings. When we are so tired of the struggle in the dark and cold, we can open to the promise of change that grows up all around us in spring. We can take our cue from the earth itself and turn our cold shoulders to the sun, warming to the possibility that even lives grown cold and tired can become new again.