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Posts from the ‘Spring’ Category

Lilacs Under Construction

“Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.” – Oscar Wilde

“A flower must bloom inside first before revealing its beauty to the world.”― Matshona Dhliwayo

Planting seeds.
Rooting in good soil.
Pruning for growth.
Waiting in anticipation.
The slow unfolding.
Winters to springs.
Transitions to transformations.
Order, disorder, reorder.
Seasons, circles, cycles.
Trusting the Gardener.
Spiraling up.
Preparing for bud, burst, bloom.
Lilacs under construction.

“Spring is here and my old joy blooms in the world.”― Steve Scafidi, For Love of Common Words: Poems

Varieties of Presence, Spring Awakening

“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

“At any time you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Seasons, transitions, transformations
Thresholds, frontiers of before and after
A foot on each side, past and present, winter and spring
Between ashes and Resurrection
Spring and Lent holding hands together
Walking the external and internal journey
Of reflection, waiting, seeding, tending, blooming
Slow walk, road unfolding a step at a time
Glimpses of spring
Calling forward to cross over soon
Buds breaking ground around the corner
Beauty for ashes, joy too

“Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!” – Sitting Bull

Springtime Advent

“Wonder. Go on and wonder.”― William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury

“Oremus

…Let us listen to the sound of breath in our bodies.

Let us listen to the sounds of our own voices, of our own names, of our own fears.
Let us name the harsh light and soft darkness that surround us…
The world is big, and wide, and wild and wonderful and wicked,
and our lives are murky, magnificent, malleable and full of meaning.

Oremus.
Let us pray.” – Pádraig Ó Tuama

To be here and now
Fully
In the mess, chaos and the beauty
The in betweens
Not winter but not spring
The advent time of spring
The brown sure to turn to green with April rain
Followed by the first bloom to break ground and burst into color
Anticipation. Reverence. Presence.
Springtime Christmas is coming soon
Outside and in
To walk with joy, delight, wonder
Especially in “the longer than we want” waiting seasons
The what’s next
The transitions that lead to transformation
Trust the process and go on and wonder in the meantime.

“The only place to begin is where I am, and whether by desire or disaster, I am here. My being here is not dependent on my recognition of the fact. I am here anyway. But it might help if I could learn to look around.”― Pádraig Ó Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World

Sweet Smell of Dirt

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

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues

Winter to spring dance
Dirt softening to growth
Get out and put on some spring
A walk in the woods
Wrestle in the back yard
Mud on the forehead
Dirt embedded in your feet
Grounding in ordinary days
With extraordinary gratitude
To be right where you are
Delighting in this day
The unfolding of a thousand springs.

“For a day, just for one day,
Talk about that which disturbs no one
And bring some peace into your
Beautiful eyes.”
– Shams-al-Din Mohammad Hafez, The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems Inspired by Hafiz

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” – John Muir

The Music of Spring

“Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.” – Victor Hugo

“Rest you here, enchanter, while the light fades,
Vision narrows, and the far
Sky-edge is gone with the sun.
Be content with the small spark
Of the coal, the smell
Of food, and the breath
Of frost beyond the shut door.
Home is here, and familiar things;
A cup, a wooden bowl, a blanket,
Prayer, a gift for the god, and sleep.
(And music, says the harp, And music.)
Rest here, enchanter, while the fire dies.
In a breath, in an eyelid’s fall,
You will see them, the dreams;
The sword and the young king,
The white horse and the running water,
The lit lamp and the boy smiling.
Dreams, dreams, enchanter! Gone with the harp’s echo
when the strings
Fall mute; with the flame’s shadow when the fire
Dies.
Be still, and listen.
Far on the black air Blows the great wind, rises
The running tide, flows the clear river.
Listen, enchanter, hear
Through the black air and the singing air
The music….”
― Mary Stewart

The music of spring falling into summer.
Birds swoop then perch.
Nature flourishing, confetti of color abase and abound.
Rain and sun taking their turns, doing their job.
Listen, with all of your senses.
The gifts of spring without and within.
Hear, enchanter.
The music.

“Study lends a kind of enchantment to all our surroundings.” – Honore de Balzac

Greening

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

“Happiness? The color of it must be spring green” – Frances Mayes

Winter rest, spring rain, early summer sun.
The earth is greening.
Bursting, shouting, flourishing.
Made new, lush, alive.
Witness, partake, participate.
Abide here.
Bask in the glory of the blooming of this day.
Root, green, grow.

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.” – Henry Ward Beecher

Bloom Recklessly

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

“If you will stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable, those things can unexpectedly become great and immeasurable.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Look not too far ahead nor back and miss the show.
The one of reckless bloom of the present.
The dance of seasons woven together.
Winter rest to spring burst, summer in the wings.
On the cusp, tipping points, transitions, transformation.
Do not skip your turn.
What’s in your foreground?
Arms reach awaiting noticing and attention?
Reach.
Bloom recklessly, with great abandon.
In this very day.

“Let your beauty manifest itself
without talking and calculation.​
You are silent. It says for you: I am.
And comes in meaning thousandfold​,
comes at long last over everyone.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

The Spring of Things

“Seeds emerge as small plants when they break through their shell and reach for the sun, growing past the soil that has nurtured them. When flowers are ready they open to the light. In nature, growth is normal and natural. The same is true for us. We’re intended to stretch past who we perceive ourselves to be to grow into the glory of who we truly are.” – Rev Jane Beach

Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches–
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead–
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging–

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted–

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.”

Revel in the spring of things.
Flowers making their grand entrance to center stage.
The sun rise earlier, lingering later too.
The earth waking up each day calling all to anchor feet, raise arms.
A celebration of flourishing.
Winter to spring.
Hope fulfilled.
Vibrancy, color, beauty.
Without and within.
The dance of the spring of all things.
Dance.

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”― Maya Angelou

Next Up

“I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.” – e. e. cummings

“I imagine that yes is the only living thing.” –  e. e. cummings

Lilacs on the cusp of bursting.
Blue dream of sky.
Rain on Tuesday should advance the bloom.
Short lived but powerful fragrance and soft purple.
Remaining gratefully present with one foot in hope for what’s next up.
Like the flowers surety, steadfastness and certainty.
The lessons of the season of bloom.
In nature and within.

“If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.”― Dostoevski

The Daffodil

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party’!” – Robin Williams.

“Hope is not naive, and hope is not an opiate. Hope may be the single greatest act of defiance against a politics of pessimism and against a culture of despair.”― Sharon Brous

The heroism of the daffodil.
Pushing through dry weathered ground, old leaves.
To pop its head up first.
Risking too soon.
Perhaps one more snow.
The kid that jumps when others hesitate.
Defiant rebel.
Shouting praise and let’s party.
Spring is here.
Brillant color, showing off.
Soul rising to meet the sun.
Hope fulfilled.

“Blessed be you, universal matter, immeasurable time, boundless ether, triple abyss of stars and atoms and generations: you who by overflowing and dissolving our narrow standards or measurement reveal to us the dimensions of God.”― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe