Grand Old Ivy

There are no fewer than fifteen early morning festivals held across the US and Canada on February 2, held to watch groundhogs emerge from their burrows and somehow predict the weather. In 2009, six predicted an early spring, while the other nine indicated six more weeks of winter. For the groundhog, it's not an exact science.

When Punxsutawney Phil crawled out of his burrow in 2009, he predicted winter was staying around a while. I was laid off from my job a few weeks earlier, and the thought of winter hanging about for a while longer was not helping me feel any better about things. Fortunately, by the time spring really arrived as it consistently does on the vernal equinox, I was about to accept a new job.

This year, I don't need a groundhog to tell me spring is coming, and whether it takes six weeks to show up or not is truly inconsequential. Spring will come. Alexander Pope's poem, An Essay on Man, written in 1733, includes the now famous and oft-quoted line:

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Hey, you gotta have faith. Spring will arrive. Flowers will bloom. The grass will grow. The birds will sing. Things will get better.