The Signs of Spring

My meadow and woods are alive, even though there is still some snow on the ground. You have to peek, probe and be still to see that life abounds beneath the snow and leaf cover and within the ground and at the edge of branches and twigs.

There is something spiritual about the spring season. It’s a celebrating renewal and rebirth for many religious communities and disciplines, and it's a regenerating time for all of nature.

Some of the old leaves from last fall are still embedded in the tan and matted grasses. Last fall’s leaves are now a deep brown and black in color. They are withered, wet and drained of their nutrients in order to nurture renewed growth and new life from the seeding winter winds.

The Lichen on the rocks and trees seems a bit greener in its grayish demeanor. I know that Lichen florets grow more slowly than Pluto orbits the sun, but to my observation, there seemed a burst of colored growth in their crocheted stillness.

All along the meadow and adjacent woods there are fallen limbs and branches pruned by the cutting winter winds and the gusting breezes of early spring.

At a pond there are no signs yet of small fish, turtles, tadpoles, and water bugs, but there is an occasional gas bubble from the decaying leaves underneath the surface. It’s too early yet since the ice is still leaving.

Besides the trickling stream that fills the pond most of the year, there is a side spring that drains its underground flow into the pond. But there in the middle of the crystal spring is the brightest green of growth; a patch of Watercress about the size of a small rug.

It gets its early start from the warmer spring waters surging from deep underground.

In many ways we are like the watercress plant. We are warmed by deep spiritual waters from an inner Source and we grow despite the outward climate or birth conditions and our main nutrient is unconditional love.

Amazing.