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Posts from the ‘Spring’ Category

Apr 14

Winter to Summer, Back to Spring

“The bird dares to break the shell, then the shell breaks open and the bird can fly openly. This is the simplest principle of success. You dream, you dare and and you fly.”― Israelmore Ayivor

“She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.”― Monique Duval

We’ve gone from 7+ feet of snow two weeks ago to 5 days of 80+ degrees.
Robins and red-winged blackbirds proclaim spring’s return, this week a slice of July.
Deep snow lingers still.
Temps dropping to 50s and rain tomorrow.
Snow on Sunday.
Back to spring 50s next week.
Seasons colliding, merging, dancing.
Polka. Waltz. Salsa.
Winter to summer and back again to spring.
Patterns of nature.
Up, down, all around.
Life on display.
Become part of the silence, the flow.
Your answer to what is right now, a resounding “Yes!”
Dream. Dare. Fly.

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”― Robert Lynd

Apr 5

Spring Delivered

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” – Amelia Earhart

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” – Oscar Wilde

When winter lingers into April, clinging tightly.
Deliver spring.
Beautiful bright flowers on a rainy cold day from friends who stick and stay.
“Just a little something to say we are thinking of you! Happy Spring, love Chris and Lynn.”
So much more than “a little something.”
Acts of kindness.
Grace in action, no words can compete.
Love shows up in so many ways.
We all have the capacity and calling to be carriers of love.
Joy multiplies with a simple hello, a text, a call.
The loudest often in quiet authentic acts.
In unexpected flowers delivered on an April winter day.
Spring delivered when nature is holding out on us, seasons in an arm wrestle and head lock.
Pass it on.
Deliver spring today.

“Life is a full circle, widening until it joins the circle motions of the infinite.”― Anais Nin

Apr 1

April Showers, Minnesota-Style

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. (Sonnet XCVIII)”― William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Sonnets

“Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.” – Luther Burbank

April showers, ala Minnesota.
There may be a bit of delay in the bloom.
But there are flowers underneath the fresh blanket of fluffy water.
Preparing, softening, readying for spring.
Never doubt spring will come.
Nor doubt winter will linger until ready to bid adieu.

“The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” – Marty Rubin

Mar 21

The Second Day of Spring

“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” – Joan Didion

“When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

We put a lot of hope, focus and energy into firsts, into lasts, into nexts, into moving on.
But the whole and entirety of life is in the second, third, fourth, middle days between firsts and lasts.
We remember too little, the highlights, the lowlights, the trips, the falls.
Forgetting the ordinary days of grace, laughter, joy.
Not a mere snapshot but the entire story, the narrative, the love, the staying.
A lot of small steps to our finish lines and start lines.
Slow down and feel each step in the journey.
Today is the second day of spring.
Spring awaits patiently to be revealed under the snow, witness the melt.
One day at a time to green grass, brilliant color of bloom, precursor to summer.
Stay awake, aware and steeped in the waters of today, the second day of spring.

“One day we will remember how lucky we were to have known their love, with wonder, not grief.” – Elizabeth Postle

Mar 6

Last Snows

“Yes, I deserve a spring – I owe nobody nothing.”― Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary

“Think of the universe as an eternal creative unfolding.
Trees blossom.
Cells replicate.
Rivers forge new tributaries.
The world pulses with productive energy, and everything that exists on this planet is driven by that energy.
Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

A heavy white coat clings to the trees and shrubs.
March snow.
Different that November snow.
Last snows.
The finale to winter.
Prelude to spring.
Nourishing, softening the earth.
Alarm goes off to awaken the seeds and bulbs.
Snooze button a few more times.
Then spring will get up, rise. ensue.
Bursting with color, resurrection, joy.
The anticipation of last snows.
Of new life arriving soon.

“Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Mar 4

2 Comments

Exclamation Points Abound!!!

“And the Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

“The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back for the poet once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid. The discipline of poetry is in overhearing yourself say difficult truths from which it is impossible to retreat. Poetry is a break for freedom. In a sense all poems are good; all poems are an emblem of courage and the attempt to say the unsayable; but only a few are able to speak to something universal yet personal and distinct at the same time; to create a door through which others can walk into what previously seemed unobtainable realms, in the passage of a few short lines.”― David Whyte

A poem.
A prayer.
A song.
A dance.
An exclamation point!
Pause to praise, to delight, to kneel at the altars of ordinary days.
Allow and invite awe to do its work in you.
Pass it on.
Embody the elements and essence of spring.
May you find many exclamation points woven through this day.
And respond accordingly.
!!!

“That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.”― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Mar 1

The Promise of March

“Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs, bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling, each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine.”― L.M. Montgomery

March 1st.
The snow is softly falling.
And it’s March,
Threshold month.
One foot in winter.
One foot tipping into spring.
Not before.
Not after.
In between but tilting to the promise of spring.
The harvest of wintering, of preparation to fruition.
Bloom coming soon.
Colors to burst.
Sun to linger longer.
The power of transformation, and of seeing it unfold.

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

Feb 28

Red Burst, Prelude to Spring

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”― John Muir, The Wilderness World of John Muir

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

Suddenly, a red burst landed on the barren branch.
Blue sky backdrop pops too.
In the lull of winter, a kiss of spring.
An embrace of color.
A dance of delight.
Signs, wonders, awe abound in each day.
Awaiting the sharpening of our senses.
The awakening of our hope.
Not quite here yet, but spring is preparing and planning its arrival.
An invitation to joy.
Say “YES!”

“Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

Feb 24

24 Days to Spring

“When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.”― Byron Katie

“Blessed are you who discover that even in the smallness, your attention might be compressed even more. You who pull out a magnifying glass to discover, to notice, to taste, to smell the small joys and simple pleasures that make a life worth living.”- Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie — The Lives We Actually Have: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days

An average of 16 inches of snow the past few days.
A fresh canvas to get out and play in or an inconvenience to complain about.
I choose the fresh canvas approach.
It’s more fun.
The final sweeps and swings of winter on our way to spring.
24 days.
Hard to believe but spring always follows winter in due time.
Remain in winter a bit longer.
At the end of the day yesterday, I went knee-deep snowshoeing.
Kids and adults were out sledding and laughing with delight.
Fresh canvas approach.
Only 24 days left to play in the snow.
Probably a few more than 24 days as the dance of season transitions is about to ensue.
Witness and participate in all of it.
Change the narrative, enjoy this day.

“Be joyful because it is humanly possible.”― Wendell Berry

“To preserve the silence within–amid all the noise. To remain open and quiet, a moist humus in the fertile darkness where the rain falls and the grain ripens–no matter how many tramp across the parade ground in whirling dust under an arid sky.”― Dag Hammarskjöld, Markings

Feb 1

A Hundred Spring

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”― Claude Monet

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Change the scenery.
Go a different direction.
Wander and wonder.
Off trail for a bit.
No doing, completing, checklists.
Substance over transaction.
A clearing, an open field.
Colors pop and burst.
Fresh air clears the residue.
Pause and dwell.
A slowing, softening, deepening.
Reset, recalibrate in rest, in pondering not pining.
Allow, invite, welcome.
A hundred spring unfolding.
Witness and participate.

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”― Edna St. Vincent Millay

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

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