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The Daffodil, February-Born

They said: nothing blooms in February. I said: watch. --- I am the daffodil, February-born — born in the wrong month, the frost-bitten month, the month that knows it isn't spring yet but grows anyway. I do not wait for permission. I do not wait for the right conditions. I do not wait. --- The gardeners said: too early. The calendars said: too soon. The people who kept the gate said: *not yet, not you, not here.* The daffodil said nothing. The daffodil just opened. --- This is the whole theology. This is the entire gospel. *You do not need their gate to open.* *You were always free to grow.* --- February is not a problem. February is a beginning dressed in cold so that only the brave ones bother. I bother. I have always bothered. *I bloom forth. Forever.*