She's sitting by the window
watching as the flowers grow
up toward the sun
She's watching as a young spring
grows into a summer
full and full of fun
She doesn't know that at the end of every summer
Autumn will always come
September frost and each flower is lost in the chill of the cold winter wind
In the chill of the cold winter wind

She's listening to birds call
watching as the leaves fall
onto the ground
She's pondering what has been
shivering at the cold wind
that blows all around
And she wonders as she watches through the window
Where all the flowers have gone
Her heart is breaking and her hands are shaking as she feels the winter draw near
She feels the winter draw near

And I try to tell her but she just can't hear
The tears are falling and she can't see clear
She cannot hear me saying
That soon the cold will end
That from the frost the strongest flowers grow

It's night and most are sleeping
but I see her weeping
into her hands
She tells me of the one who
took her heart and left her
she can't understand
And she wonders if her broken heart will mend or
if she must go on as now
Lonely inside with the ebb of the tide, will she ever feel whole again
will she ever feel whole again

And I try to tell her but she just can't hear
The tears are falling and she can't see clear
She cannot hear me saying
That soon her cold will end
That from the frost the strongest flowers grow

And though she cannot see it now
though her sight is clouded by the storm
someday she too will know that time does healing bring
from winter is born
spring

That's all long ago and now I
see her by the window
watching the sun
Written in her face the
test of many winters
She's faced all alone
but the light of spring is shining bright in her eyes
And I can see that she's found
Warmth that will last her until winter's past her, the sort that comes out from within
she looked and she found it within

And she says to me that she has found the way
to weather winter when spring's far away
She's found the sort of bandage
that heals a broken heart
those who leave can still within her stay

still can stay



They met in early summer, when the first of the summer flowers were beginning to push up from the earth, seeking sunlight. He found in her intensity and passion for life excitement, she found in him everything she’d ever hoped for. A handful of dinners, half as many walks in the park, and she had a ring.

He told himself he loved Jamie, but all too soon he found he loved Brooke more. He left on a grey day in mid-November, when the sun had gone to seek warmer places and the trees were black and bare. Jamie got into the habit of crying herself to sleep each night.
Mara knew about him – Jamie had told her all of it.

“The pain will go away,” Mara insisted gently. “Not now, maybe not soon, but someday you will wake up and find that the hurt is there no longer.”

But Jamie didn’t hear Mara, wasn’t soothed. She cried until all her tears were gone, and then she cried some more.

Autumn became winter. The ground hardened and froze, and the tree-branches creaked and snapped beneath the weight of the ice they bore. Jamie stopped calling Mara.

After winter came spring, and the melting of the ice. Mara watched as water ran from the trees and turned the ground muddy. Soon, the first flowers began to appear. Jamie didn’t seem to see them.

Before another summer had passed Jamie moved to a different town.

“I can’t stay here anymore,” she told Mara. Her face was grey and lined with pain. She didn’t meet Mara’s eyes. “I see him everywhere I look.”

She was gone by the next morning. Mara called silently after her to wait – to stay and watch the roses bloom – but Jamie couldn’t hear her.



More springs came and went, and more winters did too. When Mara next saw Jamie many years had passed. Jamie was older, and there were more lines in her face – though some of these, now, were laugh lines.

“What happened?” Mara asked.

Jamie smiled – a happy smile, though it was a smile that showed as much experience with pain as joy.

“I watched the roses bloom,” said Jamie simply, and suddenly Mara knew what it was she was seeing in Jamie’s smile – wisdom. There were oceans of wisdom in Jamie now, wisdom that had never been there before. “I found my spring.”