How Did They Know?

By Joyce Rupp

How did they know
it was time to push up
through the long-wintered soil?

How did they know
it was the moment to resurrect
while thick layers of stubborn ice
still pressed the bleak ground flat?

But the tulips knew.
They came, rising strongly,
a day after the ice died.

There's a hope-filled place in me
that also knows when to rise.
It is urged by the strong sun
warming my wintered heart.
It is nudged by the Secret One,
calling, calling, calling,
"Arise, my love, and come."

Like the dormant tulips
my heart stirs,
and hope comes dancing forth.
Not unlike the Holy One
kissing the morning sun,
waving a final farewell
to a tomb emptied of its treasure.

– Joyce Rupp
(from The Cosmic Dance: An Invitation to Experience Our Oneness)

For more of Joyce Rupp at The Wild Reed, see:
• A Springtime Prayer
• Prayer of the Week – October 30, 2012
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Joyce Rupp

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• The End of a Very Long Winter
• Springtime by the Creek
• A Springtime Walk Along Minnehaha Creek (March 2012)
• Waiting in Repose for Spring's Awakening Kiss
• In the Footsteps of Spring
• The Onward Call
• "More Lovely Than the Dawn": God as Divine Lover

Images: Michael J. Bayly.