{"id":1411,"date":"2023-03-15T14:26:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1411"},"modified":"2023-03-15T14:26:22","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T19:26:22","slug":"waiting-for-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/?p=1411","title":{"rendered":"Waiting for Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Rebecca Evans<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Late winter, every year,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can\u2019t wait until spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the window each morning I water<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and turn the antique bowl of tulips<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I potted up last fall and rooted<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in my cold, dark room in the cellar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On cloudy days, the stalks rising up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">lean beseechingly into the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their tightly closed, pointed leaves,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like hands steepled in prayer,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">shield their flower bud embryos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh, God, I\u2019m afraid of the dark<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of growing old. I fear<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the infirmities of age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Bless me, protect me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I am still your tender plant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No matter how low<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">my parched stalk may bend,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">teach me patience waiting for spring,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the same patience of trees,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">free me from complaint,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">nurture me like ripening fruit<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">before it falls from the tree,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">keep turning me<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">toward the light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oh God, I&#8217;m afraid of the dark\/ of growing old.<\/p>\n<p>Image by Pixabay Commons<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-2023"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1414,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1411\/revisions\/1414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareletter.milwaukeequakers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}