All in One Week!

Walking has been a pure pleasure this week: plenty of sun, cool temperatures, and an amazing variety of blooming things! I certainly haven’t been keeping a brisk pace, however, because there are just too many wonders to stop and examine. Here are just a few, beginning with back-to-back jack-in-the-pulpits, above.

Above, a strawberry shrub. I love this plant mostly because of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “The Strawberry Shrub.” I believe that her description of the flower is also a metaphor for how poems work.

Lily of the valley. Blooming early, like so many things are this year.

The columbine—who could even invent such a shape?—and, below, a tiny insect taking shelter within the curve of the columbine bud. Really, this little creature was almost impossibly tiny. My camera can see so much better than my eyes.

Read Full Post »

Sacred Spirals

So. The computer on which I do most of my work has crashed, and I haven’t had it for two whole weeks. That means I am doing a lot of walking, partly to pass the time and partly to keep from panicking about the computer and the backlog of work and bookkeeping that’s currently out of my reach. Luckily, it’s a great time of year for walking. Many wildflowers are blooming, and all sorts of growing things are pushing their way into the world.

When I saw these emerging fronds today, they seemed to be speaking to me about my life: telling me something about inevitability and time. Things will work themselves out. The computer will get fixed, or it won’t. I will retrieve my files, or I won’t. Tomorrow will come. Next week will come. These fronds will unfurl into ferns and flowers, whether I am sitting at a keyboard or walking up a hill, whether I am laughing or crying.

I think I’ll laugh. I think I’ll walk.

Read Full Post »