Thinking of Spring
Posted on 08. Feb, 2009 by Deb in On a Jet Plane, The Girl
It’s February. According to the calendar, Spring is still another month away…and if we listen to old Phil from Pennsylvania, we’ve got six more weeks of winter coming (well, five now, since that prediction was made a week ago). I am ever the optimist…and hope that no matter what Phil says, Spring will be early. I prefer to use the “Greta” method…that when Mother Nature breaks the back of Winter here, I can tell, no matter the outside temperature, that Spring is upon us, because Greta (the Bouvier) begins sleeping on the tile floor of my bathroom rather than her blanket at the foot of my bed. She has been sleeping on the tile for the last 4 nights.
I was also going through photos to pull some things for the 52 Stories project and came across this photo of the Cherry Blossoms in DC from April of last year.
It was so beautiful last year. It’s a crap shoot, as anything is with Mother Nature, whether the blossoms that represent Spring to DC will have a good season or a short one. 2007 was very short and a heavy rain seemed to wash them all away in an instant. I missed the short-lived blossoms by about a week, though a few stragglers remained. 2008 was a good year and I was blessed to be there. I was doubly blessed to have a lovely April day to walk from the Jefferson Memorial, all around the Tidal Basin, past Roosevelt and across to Lincoln. A couple of my photos are here though if you look through the April part of my blog, you’ll see more). Hopefully, my blessings will be generous this year and I will be present to witness the 2009 Cherry Blossom Season as well.
It’s funny how one image can set us off into our head and woolgathering. It got me to thinking about the vagaries of Mother Nature. And how no matter how hard Winter seems, that Spring will come. It makes me think about planning, too. We plan our lives and set our purposes in most cases. We choose a college and a career path, or a partner to spend out lives with, or carefully plan a party for our parent’s 50th. Often times, they go off as planned, but sometimes, life throws us a curve. Mother Nature and the Cherry Trees are just one of those physical examples. 2007 was a curve, 2008 went as planned. The anticipation for 2009 is beginning.
Curves are usually thought of in the negative connotation, but I’m a big believer that curves are not always a bad thing. Sometimes, it’s simply a vehicle for growth or learning….when life is “perfect” and going according to plan, it’s easy to become complacent. Even when life isn’t going so smooth, we often ignore the signs of change so as to not rock the boat of our neat and tidy little lives. I know I doubted – and friends wondered – how I would recover the pieces of my life after the divorce, but I found it within myself and just did. When I probe inward and do a little evaluation, me in 2009 is a much better person than the me in 2004. Not that I am “done”, though. I still learn each day. And like my training in the QA world, there is continual growth in my soul…
Well, I certainly digress in what were my thoughts of Spring, but since this is my space to be who I am for this moment, it’s ok.
Spring is about rebirth and renewal and growth. Despite the fact that we know that Spring will eventually follow Winter, there is still the anticipation of its arrival. I am simply hopeful that it will be soon as I want warm breezes, shoots of green, and the beauty of a Red Breasted Robin to go along with the mockingbird family living in my front hedge. Patience has never been one of my virtues, but I am beginning to find a better understanding of her. I am beginning to appreciate how unexpected things in my life are helping me to find some growth…some confidence…and some comfort in the results of patience. How confidence and peace are intertwined and in reach.
And like Spring, it will come. In it’s own time. I am the ever optimist.
Paul L
15. Feb, 2009
Great photo! Can’t wait until Spring.
Thanks.