Every year, my heart waits for my Japanese Magnolia to bloom. I actually have two in my yard- one in the front and one in the back. Most of the images I have captured through the years are from my tree in the front yard.

The tree in the back yard had been behind a wall and some bushes. It never received enough light to bloom fully. However, we took down the wall and bushes to make the yard feel bigger. And in doing that, the Japanese Magnolia in the backyard has really grown. Her branches are full of blooms this year. It is incredible what a little warmth, a little hope, can do.

One of the many reasons I love this tree so much is because it blooms in the winter. Each year, she reminds me to hope in cold dark months. We can learn so much in the darkness. So I am leaving you today with one of my favorite poems from Jan Richardson. May there be hope in the darkness.

A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark

Go slow
if you can.
Slower.
More slowly still.
Friendly dark
or fearsome,
this is no place
to break your neck
by rushing,
by running,
by crashing into
what you cannot see.

Then again,
it is true:
different darks
have different tasks,
and if you
have arrived here unawares,
if you have come
in peril
or in pain,
this might be no place
you should dawdle.

I do not know
what these shadows
ask of you,
what they might hold
that means you good
or ill.
It is not for me
to reckon
whether you should linger
or you should leave.

But this is what
I can ask for you:

That in the darkness
there be a blessing.
That in the shadows
there be a welcome.
That in the night
you be encompassed
by the Love that knows
your name.

—Jan Richardson

~Staci Lee