It's the Circle of Life...

...And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life

It's Spring.

Newness. Regrowth. Rebirth. What was planted last year or the year before forces itself through the soil and lives again. We start all over again. Rake out the old leaves. Scatter seed, pull out weeds, lay down mulch. We did it last year and will do it again this year.

Did you see the movie Groundhog Day? TV Weatherman Phil Connors (so eloquently played by Bill Murray) lives February 2nd over and over and over again - years worth of Groundhog days repeating themselves one right after the other. After several Groundhog Days, Phil realizes this is an opportunity more than a curse. Repeating the same day, playing through the same highs and lows, successes and failures - he can learn from yesterdays mistakes and insure that tomorrow they'll be successes.

Yesterday and tomorrow are gifts from God. He gives us new mornings, new seasons, new years to learn from our mistakes and make a new go at life remembering what went wrong and innovate, learn to move in the right direction tomorrow. The places and faces may change but the temptations and trials are the same.

So I say, "My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD."
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:18-23