Spring is the hardest time of year for me. It is such a tender time, new life pushing to be born and being knocked back over and over again. I ache for every Lilac bloom and new leaf, the fragile Bleeding Heart with it's translucent stem curving into those dripping pink and white hearts, the deep red Peony leaves with their tightly closed buds, the graceful curve of the pink and green Japanese Maple. I have always said that I hate Spring with it's teasing and endless days of becoming. I think maybe what I dislike the most is the fact that Winter simply does not let go as easily as the other seasons. Spring turns into Summer without much fuss and Summer becomes Fall, with it's simple letting go. But Winter, Winter holds on with a vengeance and just when it seems like we are free of it, it comes back.
I used every sheet in the house last night to protect that new life just becoming and trying to be born. I'm not sure it helped. The blueberries and strawberries seemed to appreciate the cover. The other tender things are doubled over this morning, their lifeblood frozen in their stems, in spite of my attempts to help. I can only trust to their inner nature and the warmth of the sun, hoping they will spring up again and sing like the Daffodils did not so long ago.
Perhaps it is my tender nature that empathizes too much in the Spring. I want so badly for life to be easier. For all of us. In the last couple of weeks two friends have lost fathers and two others have had terrifying and life changing diagnoses. Life turns on a dime, changes with the swoop of the North wind, a flash of light, a phone call. We hope for "normal," for life to ease into Spring the way the TV and magazines show it to us, with sun and bunnies and beautiful flowers. But here is the thing, there is no normal; we are brought to our knees and if we are lucky and strong and flexible enough we get back up again. We get back up changed, scarred and perhaps a bit misshapen, but up and on to what comes next. No one, no one gets out of here without forever being changed.
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