A taste of better days to come!

In the craziness of everyday life, there are small things that have the power to slow things down and make us think. I am back at work after the Christmas holidays and I am working as a substitute teacher in a very (VERY!) difficult school. I am always running here and there, correcting stuff, preparing lessons… I’m exhausted.

But yesterday, I took my dog out and all of a sudden I realized something: while we stress out with the many unnecessary drama we put ourselves through everyday, time passes and nature takes its course, and after the bad days, even the apparently insignificant things around us that often go unnoticed can bear the promise of better days to come.

I found myself standing in the warm springlike sun, looking down where my dog was sniffing the ground. I noticed that the first thin, tender, shaky, bright green blades of grass have started peeping out  from under the layer of mud left behind by weeks of incessant rain. I raised my eyes, and I saw that  the branches of one of the trees in the next garden are already covered in small lumps that will soon become buds and then leaves or flowers. In a corner, by a pile of old broken tiles and other abandoned building materials, a cloud of minuscule bugs were flying frantically in a sparkling cloud.

And then I saw it: a bold wild daisy, fully in bloom, bending under my dog’s curious nose! A real taste of spring in the heart of winter. These last few sunny days have made us forget the boring days of heavy rain in Tuscany, and even if the “real” spring is still far away, it’s nice to see that the coldest time of the year is almost over!