The Nature of Spring

I am thinking this morning of the simple spiritual things I experience in nature.

The lower meadow needs mowing for the first time. The grasses have grown to several inches. It has been wet so it will have to wait. It seems that everything is late this year.

I did trim some Wisteria vines and pulled some ambient seedlings from the various house gardens but it’s been too cold to plant new flower seedlings.

I again thought of man’s proximity and connection to nature’s spring birth and how we attempt to manipulate the natural beauty of spontaneous chaos into the patterned form of our symmetry and color. I remember one year planting spring seedlings in late April only to have them covered with twenty inches of snow in early May.

I watched and listened to the bubbling warble of the House Wrens building their nests in a tiny birdhouse hanging in a Hackberry Tree. Their little brown bodies belie their feisty demeanor and territorial defense.

A Turtle Dove pair has returned to a weeping cherry tree just off the kitchen window. They build such shallow and flimsy nests. I’m surprised their young survive. Last year there was an old Robin’s nest in the same spot and the Doves used that instead of constructing a new one. They may be cooing cute and slow, but not dumb.

I am reminded again, as I am so often, of Shakespeare’s line. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” I hope your spring days are just as profound.