You can never hold back spring!

Sometimes life can be tough… trust me, I’ve had my fair share. And just when I couldn’t imagine life getting any worse, my dad died, in the midst of a snowy winter. It seemed as if the whole world reflected how I felt inside: abandoned, wrapped in a cold, greyish, heavy blanket of snow and ice.

Tom Waits sings “Winter dreams the same dream every year… Baby you can never hold back spring. Remember everything that spring can bring!” Yes, I longed for and dreamt about a warm, colourful, new spring. The strange thing about winter is, we don’t know how long it will last: 6 or 4 months, who knows? But one thing we know for sure: winter won’t last and spring will come! That’s what keeps us going on, despite the long, dark winter nights, heaps of snow and slippery roads.

Tom Waits’ song “Spring” enhances the message of the movie “The Tiger and the snow”. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I suggest you do. It’s an enchanting movie with impressive performances, a moving story and beautiful music which can move you to tears. "The blushing rose that will climb, spring ahead or fall behind…”  Both Tom Waits’ song and the movie convey a message of hope and faith in things unseen, in the midst of hardship, suffering and despair. 

(Trailer for the movie “The Tiger and the snow” by Robert Benigni)

In the midst of my “winter” I had given up on “spring”, but I did know about the turn of seasons. I refused to hibernate and decided to believe a breakthrough would come. Spring came when I least expected it: suddenly a man turned up and his love managed to melt away my snow, thus creating brooks which nourished the hardened soil and brought new life. No, my life isn’t perfect, but this experience has filled my life with joy and hope for the future. New winters will come, but I can handle them as long as I keep my focus. It's about being willing to believe things unseen, despite the circumstances. It’s about rising up, stretching towards the light, moving on, looking forward, believing the best is yet to come!  "You can be sure, I will never stop believing!" (Tom Waits)