Letting Life Bloom

Along the roadside of the expressway today, I saw a garden planted by nature. I was driving slowly and carefully so I could take in the plants that became the landscape around me. A rain had just fallen and left the surfaces of nature fresh with a new moment to help life continue to thrive. In this garden daffodils had bloomed from their stems in a way that show nature untamed by human hands, yet aesthetic and formed to experience life now.

Flowers bloom and color our landscapes and the skies become filled with hues that shine in the sunlight and brighten a darkened day. Their color in the landscapes we live in becomes a sure sign of peace and harmony when planted. In springtime, the aromas bring birds and a slower pace that can slow  down the rush of life. It's as though flowers become our other connection to the earth, because along with animals, their presence becomes part of our own transience.

A flower can touch a life in a way a smile can. They are temporary, but their impact is lasting in the hearts and memories of those receiving simple beauty. A way of touching the heart that a melody of new beginnings and hope can burst forth from the wintry depths of fear and darkness. Overnight, flowers bloom, life changes, and can be given and received as growth continues from within to the path we walk along with others and with ourselves. The flower becomes the color we add to life, when we choose to, and the life that we give when we take a chance and bring something wonderful to life in the present.

The Birth of a Season

Time cannot be captured or harnessed, it can only be lived in and made the most of where we are with what we have. Seasons come into being as nature forms their very composition. Spring has come for the northern hemisphere in 2012, and not without the depth and variation that grew from winter's restless spirit.

As nature brings new days from the darkness of night, it also brings spring, from the seeming emptiness that is winter. Even the sun feels friendlier and less hostile as it begins to blanket the northern hemisphere with more of a gentle touch. Plants begin to grow again, and being among the life that is constantly taking shape opens my eyes and ears to what is about to become a memory.

Since time cannot be captured, aside from in photographs and writings. Maybe in the layers of flora that make the setting for our lives, we can experience what has come and what is yet to be found. It is in transition that life is lived, because even the seemingly static things change. Watch the stars in the sky for a few hours and you can see how they have appeared to move as Earth spins on its axis.

Yet in springtime, we can be in movement as we dance to the sound of the rain falling around us with the movement of our bodies with nature connecting us to this changing time. We can smell the aroma of violets grown wild and free and let their growth inspire us to live vibrantly and fully. We only have one life that we choose to form and react to in a multitude of ways. As colors form in nature, emotions flow in life, unexpectedly and beautifully as they transpire. With the expression of our connection, we can live in the changing times and see the opportunity to make something with the chance to reach to the steadier moments and let our choices fill our lives with wonder.

Growth nurtured by interconnectedness.

Wild vegetables grown by shade and sun, affirming the need for the dark and light.

Color bursting from the end of winter.

Last year's growth enriching the soil for a new year.

Reaching out of the ground that was scarred by winter's touch.