Signs of Spring

I love the budding of life that suddenly appears around us as the earth wakes up from its more or less long winter sleep. I've been out searching for it in the garden and bringing it in whenever possible. Budding leaves and blossom branches on the table, tulips and daffodils by the door, spring fabrics... It is amazing how the world offers itself up to us and brings us joy at every turn if we let it. Mary Oliver says it so well in one of my very favourite poems Wild Geese:

  

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

A spell of wet weather has dried up here and we are all out in the garden as much as we can be, pruning, clearing, preparing and getting very excited about digging our new vegetable patches. Spring is a time of new beginnings, awakenings and promise and there's no where better than the garden to see how richly the inner work of winter pays off with the awakening hand of the warm sun. I hope you are all enjoying it too.