By Michael
The (Idunno) trees by the deck were flowering last week in an explosion of fluff that startled and enlivened as I stood in the kitchen, yelling “faster, faster” at the caffeine machine. This week, the blossoms are gone. The leaves will be a dull green until just before November, when they’ll change to a vibrant hue and remind me, again, why we planted these things in the first place.
The (Idunno) other tree is only starting to bud, trailing its companions by about two weeks, but it’s like having another channel to tune into as the march of spring moves across April. In front of the house, one of our six bulbs bloomed last week and died already, while the rest have yet to show themselves above ground.
The landscaper who sold us all this greenery installed everything on pretty much the same day. But all the plants and trees and flowers have minds of their own. Everything buds and blooms, stretches and fades, on its own schedule. Not the landscaper’s schedule and, certainly, not mine, but the innate plan locked inside before they were planted.
Even the sprouts that look identical at first blush turn out to have different plans for their futures, confounding any expectations we might have had when we planted them. Identical bulbs, nestled together, sharing the same earth and sun and rain, will defy assumptions of sameness.
The days lengthen and awareness is heightened. We see more of the world, as the world beckons us to explore and the sunlight offers us a brighter vista. The earth comes alive, and we with it, opening our hearts and minds to the possibilities of a time yet to be discovered.
Spring is the time of awakening, of growth, of can-be. It’s the battle between warmth and cold, between what was and what will be, the dormant and the thriving. Warmth and possibilities win the race and life’s joyous potential is recognized.
Spring reminds me of children.
Michael Rosenbaum is 5 Minutes for Parenting’s first dadblogger. He is a business consultant, playwright and author of Your Name Here: Guide to Life.
Michael blogs on life issues at Your Name Here Guide to Life and manages the Adult Conversation discussion group on Linked-In.
Beautiful post, Michael. I was just commenting to Al the other day that it amazes me every year how DEAD everything seems all winter, and it seems like it’d take ages for life to battle its way back after the brutal cold, but in reality, life is infinitely stronger than death, and it bursts out defiantly at the first hint of sun and warmth. There’s something childlike about that, as well.
Yes. Expected yet unexpected. Anticipated yet always surprising. Spring is the most child-like of all the seasons, and vice versa.
P.S. As a former editor, I love how you buried the lead.
Love it. You articulated so beautifully how the natural world parallels the miracle of human development we get to tend every day.
… [Trackback]…
[…] Read More here: 5minutesforparenting.com/662/and-in-the-spring-the-babies-bloomed/ […]…