Beneath It All
“Beware a calm surface - you never know what lies beneath.” (Paula Hawkins) Indeed, the landscape out my bay window that I’ve been looking at for 2 weeks now since our last snowstorm, reveals a calm and ice crusted surface that’s worth your life to walk upon! Like so many others this February in central Massachusetts, courageous enough to start hoping for Spring, seeing this unforgiving layer of snow on everything is daunting. An eternal doubt creeps in…”maybe Spring won’t come this year??!!” But…ever a faithful fan of Hal Borland I remember just in time…”No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
As I write this entry for February many things are on my plate: certainly making plans for spring…but also pivotal family birthdays over the next several weeks, as well as a celebration of 50 years of marriage for my husband and I. What to ponder…what to cherish…what to savor as these events come to be, and even after they’ve passed. At this very moment I’m calling to mind last month’s musings on the importance of here and now, and how it’s so easy to anticipate an upcoming event so much that you miss out completely experiencing lovely lttle moments happening in between!!
The same is true regarding the coming and the going of our seasons! We can be so focused on the one around the corner that we lose sight of the gift of the one we’re still in right now. It’s hard though to blame folks in the northern climes who dream early of warmth and green after experiencing firsthand weeks and weeks of harsh wind and cold temps. Emerson claimed we are a special breed apart: “ The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitans of the northeren temperate zone wiser and abler than his fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics.” Be that as it may, I heartily recommend noticing and steeping yourself for a little while longer on the changing shape of the snow on your lawn as it recedes and melts…on the change in the song of the brids at your feeders…at the daily visible growth of the buds at the tips of the branches still draped with snow. Before too long, all of this and more will have passed into full-blown Spring whether you noticed the change or not! It doesn’t depend on us at all; it will occur whether we show up or not. Why not cut a budding branch or two to bring indoors to honor the season that is leaving and greet the one taking its place. “We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives." – Gary Zukhav
i love inviting poets and writers to add their wisdom to my monthly entries!! This month they’ve added spice here and there and also inspired me to write a poem of my own as I sat one day two weeks ago tending the fire in our wood stove…
STEADFASTNESS
Patience as I tend the woodstove fire…when things align just right and you add one tiny piece of very dry timber and watch and wait
When it catches it’s startling and miraculous though expected all along
Divine grace… divine mystery that kindles and crackles with renewed hope and passion for the work
Setting the world on fire
When things are aligned just right… and you add your aged and seasoned wisdom to the mix
-C. Milner
Be brave as February slowly passes into March…go ahead and dream of Spring…and know there is LIfe beneath the hard, icy earth…and soon black and white will fold themselves into green and yellow…try not to miss the action in between!
