I had to stop and take a second whiff. What was that? Recently, on one of my regular walks to the Spanish Banks, I was sideswiped by an amazing, sweet, spicy aroma. Nothing like Chanel No. 5 or the latest Parisian scent to turn the head or the heart. But this scent emanated from a gorgeous, yellow-floraled shrub called the witch hazel or Hamanelis mollis. 
The colorful shrub also goes by the name of Winterbloom, appropriate, given its ability to bloom during the winter. A true harbinger of spring, even if the beginning of spring is officially weeks away.
According to the ancient writer of Genesis, on the fourth day, the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it. Nice to read that the earth "brought forth" the world of plants. They were not created from on high, but were enticed to spring forth from the womb of the earth.
Forty days after the winter solstice (nice biblical number), you can see signs of this springing forth. The Winterbloom is exemplary, but signs are beginning. Buds are swelling in the forest, red alder catkins have appeared.
Each spring
in the Northern Hemisphere, the earth brings forth a symphony of color, form and sight. Days lengthen, sun's warmth increases, ice melts, migrants move, sap flows, buds burst and lovers find solace in each other. The seasonality of life repeats itself with assuring regularity. Out of the dead of the earth gushes life. Time to migrate. Time to build nests. Time to flower. Time to tap the sugar maple. Time to plan for the summer nuptials.
Earth is generative. Jesus said that he came so that we may have life and life to the full. In and through him all things were made. Jesus Christ is the cosmic tree, rooted in the stuff of the earth, reaching up to the boundless heavens. The sap of the Spirit never fails to rise up through the Body of Christ. Somehow, Christ is Love hidden deep down within. And from deep within, the Tree of Life bursts forth the spring of life; buds pulsing, sap cruising, roots gripping.
Jesus Christ won't let go of this world for Christ is at the heart of this world. As the earth flushes forth in hope each year, so do our hearts yearn for life, for goodness, beauty and truth. These are the waters of life welling up within us, springing forth from the Spirit within.
And so amidst the shedding of winter, signals the Winterbloom – a precursor of things to come.