When SPRING comes to the woods

 

When SPRING comes to the woods it comes slowly.  It doesn’t hurry.  Bits of AUTUMN and WINTER linger in the forest even as tiny

fragments of SPRING begin to appear.  There is something to be said about slow growing.  Every piece of life,

every stage of growth has its NOW–that moment when it needs to be nothing but the way it is.

There are no deadlines for growth.  Tomorrow there will be a little more added or a little taken away.  Letting go is also part of growth.

 Earth waits for mulch like we wait for greening and blossoming.

Walking through the woods in SPRING is like going to an art show.  You walk slowly.  You don’t hurry.  You allow the abundance of forest life to bless you.  You stand before each growing and decaying icon and proclaim, “oh, I remember when I was at that stage.”  When SPRING comes to the forest it’s like a teacher arriving, teaching the beauty and wisdom of the seasons.

The challenge in all of this is learning to live mindfully so that we not miss the lessons hidden

in the seasons.  Each season can be a teacher for us. Hold each season up against your life and look into its

pages as you would look into a mirror. How do you see your face in the pages of the seasons?

The poet, John Moffitt says this so well in the poem below.

Pray this poem as you would pray a line of scripture.

To look at any thing,

If you would know that thing,

You must look at it long:

To look at this green and say,

I have seen spring in these

Woods will not do–you must

Be the thing you see:

You must be the dark snakes of

Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,

You must enter in

To the small silences between

The leaves,

You must take your time

And touch the very peace

They issue from.

~John Moffitt~