Tuesday's Reflection: Spring Thoughts

As I set out on my walk this morning, I wondered if my walking time would yield a topic for this post. I hoped it would, for I didn't seem to have any ideas in a stash ready to be accessed. The morning was fresh and clear and truly, a spring day, rather than a day transitioning from late winter to spring. That was last week, when I wondered if I had stored my winter clothes too soon.

This morning, however, I allowed myself to just BE spring. I noticed how neighbors had moved furniture onto decks and patios. Spring clean-up had gotten many helping hands over the weekend. Pots emptied of gristly, dried evergreen branches leftover from the holidays. Garden beds cleared of leaf mulch, uncovering green tips eager to make an appearance. Bikes and rakes leaned against garage walls and front storm doors were open, welcoming the sun inside. Soon windows will be open, too. Spring has eased its way home and has invited us to newness within ourselves. 

John O'Donohue http://www.johnodonohue.com says in his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings, "I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over." 

It seems to me spring is the reminder to "take a risk for growth." 

When we lived in the Cleveland area we often heard people say that it wasn't really spring until it had snowed on the daffodils three times. Those daffodils took a risk for growth every year, never knowing how much cold, how many inches of snow they would have to survive in order to thrive. What good role models those daffodils can be for each of us, as we enter this next season of the year and perhaps a new season in our life as well. 

I returned home, not with any clear cut idea for today's post, but I had seen trees newly clothed in leaves and blossoms. I had noticed greens Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore at this very minute are trying to replicate. I had seen children on their way to school, bold and newly unbundled. Why not discard my sweater, too, and eliminate a layer of self-absorption or self-doubt? I expanded my lungs with freshness, like sheets drying on a clothesline, swelling in the breeze. 

Now is the time. This is the season. Be a daffodil and take a risk. Be the green without a name. Discard one more layer, reaching into your essence. Unbundle. Blossom. Reach up. Grow. 

Marianne Williamson's prayer for a new day from Illuminata, A Return to Prayer, p. 79 http://www.marianne.com

Dear God,
Thank you for this new day, its beauty and its light.
Thank you for the chance to begin again.
Free me from the limitations of yesterday.
Today may  be reborn. 
May I become more fully a reflection of Your radiance.
Give me strength and compassion and courage and wisdom.
Show me the light in myself and others.
May I recognize the good that is available everywhere.
May I be, this day, an instrument of love and healing.
Lead me into gentle pastures.
Give me deep peace that I might serve You most deeply.
Amen.

An Invitation
How can spring be your teacher? How will spring enter your life? I would love to know.