Very mixed weather in Ireland this week,  snow on Wednesday followed by warm sunshine on Friday. Our experience too can be mixed, with encouraging  moments at times and moments when discouragement reigns

But patiently, underneath it all, something emerges and we learn to let go…

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

Philip Larkin