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Posts from the ‘Spring’ Category

May 4

Dancing with Daffodils

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” – William Wordsworth

May

May, and among the miles of leafing,
blossoms storm out of the darkness—
windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees
dive into them and I too, to gather
their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs
is the deepest certainty that this existence too—
this sense of well-being, the flourishing
of the physical body—rides
near the hub of the miracle that everything
is a part of, is as good
as a poem or a prayer, can also make
luminous any dark place on earth. – Mary Oliver

Vibrancy
Light
Unfolding and unfurling
Rhythm of spring
Unfolding and unfurling
Breathing in flowers
Pay attention
Enter the delight and bloom bursting
Dance with daffodils, spiritual honey.
Nectar of awe, wonder, grace, gratitude.

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

Apr 29

May Knocking

“The garden teaches patience.” – Alfred Austin

“Yes, I will spend the livelong day
With Nature in this month of May;
And sit beneath the trees, and share
My bread with birds whose homes are there;
While cows lie down to eat, and sheep
Stand to their necks in grass so deep;
While birds do sing with all their might,
As though they felt the earth in flight.
This is the hour I dreamed of, when
I sat surrounded by poor men;
And thought of how the Arab sat
Alone at evening, gazing at
The stars that bubbled in clear skies;

And of young dreamers, when their eyes
Enjoyed methought a precious boon
In the adventures of the Moon
Whose light, behind the Clouds’ dark bars,
Searched for her stolen flocks of stars.
When I, hemmed in by wrecks of men,
Thought of some lonely cottage then
Full of sweet books; and miles of sea,
With passing ships, in front of me;
And having, on the other hand,
A flowery, green, bird-singing land.” – William Henry Davies

Poetry, pause, praise, prose of spring
May approaches, cusp
Invitation to slowly walk, noticing
The bridge to summer song
Saunter, witness, partake
The unfolding to fullness
May knocking, open the door.

“Among the changing months, May stands confest the sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.” — James Thomson

Apr 27

Spring’s Paintbrush

“Daffodils, blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April. I love these early perennials: they may be more modest but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection – charm.” – Monty Don

“There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.” – William Cullen Bryant

Join the rhythm, unfolding of the earth awakening
Greening and rooting
Colors pushing through, seeking the light
Renewal, refreshment, rejoicing
Put down winter
Pick up spring
Tiptoe through the tulips.

“April is a promise that May is bound to keep.” – Hal Borland

Apr 17

Spring Pregame

“…small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful
because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys, and thriftily save up the larger, more demanding pleasures for holidays and appropriate hours. It is the small joys first of all that are granted us for recreation, for daily relief and disburdenment, not the great ones.” – Hermann Hesse

Soak in spring pregame.
Starting line.
Lilacs shedding the old, budding the new.
Pregame for the Super Bowl of bloom.
Blue skies.
Soft breeze.
Warm sun.
Greening and colors ready to burst on the scene.
Ordinary love, crucible, liturgy of ordinary transforming.
Gather small bits, crevices, cracks, slivers of joy.
Cast them back out.

“Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Apr 15

Kissed by Light

“When one flower blooms spring awakens everywhere”― John O’Donohue

“As Spring rain softens the Earth with surprise
May your Winter places be kissed by light.

As the ocean dreams to the joy of dance
May the grace of change bring you elegance.

As day anchors a tree in light and wind
May your outer life grow from peace within.

As twilight fills night with bright horizons
May Beauty await you at home beyond.”― John O’Donohue

Early bloomers.
Daffodils, first flowers to arrive
To announce, welcoming newness of spring
Poetry dressed in yellow
Winter bids adieu
Fresh start, new day
Outside and within.

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring…Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible.” – John O’Donohue

Mar 30

Desert Bloom, Spring Hope

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone but in every leaf of springtime.” – Martin Luther

“May we anchor ourselves to the now.
Not allowing our minds skip to what-ifs
or what-will-happen-whens.
Blessed are you trying to put aside
the “everything is possible” mentality.
You who know that sheer effort
will not put these pieces back together.
You who have lost perfection,
and found rest in “good enough” instead.
One small step,
one deep breath,
at a time.” – Kate Bowler

Amidst dried leaves and pine needles, softening ground
First buds push to light
Bloom breaks through, small but mighty
Spring, newness, resurrection
Winter to spring
One step, one breath at a time
Desert bloom.

“For no miracle disturbed them so much as that of Lazarus.” – St. John Chrysostom

Mar 26

Benediction of Spring

“After the wet spring, everything that could turn green had outdone itself in greenness and everything that could even dream of blooming or blossoming was in bloom and blossom. The sunlight was a benediction.” ― Dan Simmons, Drood

“And over walls and earth and trees and swinging sprays and tendrils the fair green veil of tender little leaves had crept, and in the grass under the trees and the gray urns in the alcoves and here and there everywhere were touches or splashes of gold and purple and white and the trees were showing pink and snow above his head and there were fluttering of wings and faint sweet pipes and humming and scents and scents.”― Frances Hodgson Burnett, Secret Garden

Cusp of spring.
Slivers and beams of things to come.
Of things already here.
Transition into transformation.
Close but not yet.
Bloom under construction.
Time and timing.
Confetti of color.
Souls of beautiful things.

“Surely the flowers of a hundred spring are simply the souls of beautiful things!”― L.M. Montgomery, The Watchman and Other Poems

Mar 19

Cardinal Points

“If self is a location, so is love:
Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points,
Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance,
Here and there and now and then, a stance.”― Seamus Heaney, District and Circle

“Awake! arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm
Loses its strength by too much rest;
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Winter, spring
Spring, winter
Wintering rest
Spring rising
Fallow to fertile
Cardinal points
New creation unfolding
Within first, moving out anew.

“If you feel like you don’t fit into the world you inherited it is because you were born to help create a new one.”― Ross Caligiuri, Dreaming in the Shadows

Mar 17

Spring Swinging

“Only those with tenacity can march forward in March.”― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“The stormy March has come at last,
With winds and clouds and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast
That through the snowy valley flies.”
― William C. Bryant

March push and pull.
50-degree temperature swings.
Softening earth.
Followed by 10 inches of snow.
Transformation under construction.
Preparing spring to burst with brilliant colors.
Join the dance.
Winter always yields to spring.
Time and timing.
Joy in the waiting, on each step of the journey.
Gratitude in, for, through all seasons.

“In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.”― Jean Hersey

Mar 10

Circles of Nature

“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” – May Sarton

Tilling soil
Planting seeds
Wait and weight
Time and timing
Anticipating and abiding
The work of seasons
Transitions
Transformation
Spring.

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” – Margaret Atwood

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