When Season’s Change

Outside my window the garden is bursting with life while birds flit from tree to tree in the sunlight and chatter to each other incessantly. The sun shines vivaciously. But it’s teasing. Its companion is an icy wind that finds the folds and crevasses of my clothing and makes it known that its not quite spring. It’s teetering on the edge of a new season but clinging on to the old one too.

” With the coming of spring I am calm again.” Gustav Mahler

The air has changed in the last few days. It smells sweeter. Full of possibility and new hope, the air breathes life into all it touches. Defiant daffodils bend in the wind but do not break. Daylight visits earlier and I mostly bounce out of bed, full of anticipation of the new day. There’s so much to do in spring. The walls of this house that have held me close and safe all winter, now cry out for a dash of fresh paint. The windows, riddled with grit demand to sparkle. The garden lurches into a surge of growth. But growth doesn’t discriminate…… a rose, lavender or noxious weed, thistle or sticky weed- all are aroused.

” Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.” Doug Larson

Neighbours are seen again and drop by for a chat and a cuppa. Kids play in the street and their shrieks of laughter drift through the slightly opened windows. Animals sense the change of season and become more adventurous. Gracie, the cat launches herself from one Birch tree to the next, scaling her Everest. The geese from the valley waddle up the road to check out the scene from the top of the hill. Then waddle back down again, nonchalant in their new found wisdom.

There’s a flurry of decorating and re-organising the home as if spring expects the emperor to have a set of new clothes. A fresh palette, a softer open aspect of light pinks and greens. Inviting people into this world instead of closing the doors and hunkering down in the nestled comfort of a nurturing winter.

” It is so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done.” Matthew Arnold

Above all spring delivers an invitation to a new chapter. It invites growth, learning, love, openness and noticing. Spring is when nature puts on a demonstration of how to grow…an in -your – face expose of how to open up to the warmth, possibility and new beginnings. We are given the chance to live differently, think differently and find a new space to inhabit. Spring does not hesitate nor fear..it just does. The strong winds can come, the garden can be flattened, branches fall off..but the garden goes on. We find healing in spring and hope for a bigger and better life for ourselves and others around us.

” I am going to pay attention to the spring.I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.” Anne Lamott

Along with hope and opportunity there’s a new energy and rhythm to life. The changes you have wanted to make can happen now. These are the days for reshaping and redefining in ways big and small, how your new chapter can be lived. All my big changes and life decisions have been enacted in spring. This is the time. How will you grow in this season of hope, change and growth? Are you about to enter a different season- fall? how will this season influence your life and what you learn from it? Take the time…you deserve it..review, renegotiate, revitalise.

” Spring is a true reconstructionist.” Henry Timrod

31 August 2019 | Living Well

2 Comments

  1. I have always loved spring too and feel the sense of renewal and hope deep within. We are lucky to experience all the seasons and their gifts. This was such a lovely read, thank you.

    1. Thank you Di……I’m glad the article resonated with you…there’s such a vitality and energy in the air…..

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