Spring is here! For so long it had been tensed and waiting, poised on haunches to spring...but now it has sprung! So many things are in full flower, but many others are still in tight bud, awaiting just the right moment to cautiously unfurl a tiny leaf or petal of a flower. To bloom is a leap of faith, in both the plant and human world.
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| Striped Crocus |
The ground is covered with wildflowers. Many of them are so small you can't see them when standing at full height, some things require that you get down close to really admire them. The famous painter, Georgia O'Keefe said, "Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't the time, and to see takes time- like having a friend takes time."
When I was young I would get Spring Fever every year. Not the kind where you are jubilantly running and frolicking in the newly warmed air, "running wild as a March hare". No, the kind where you feel achy and tired and vaguely wrong. On those days my Moma would let me stay home from school. She would put out a quilt and pillow for me to lay on, and put a second quilt to cover up with. The hill at the back of the house was a steep one, so that you were almost at a standing angle, the perfect angle to lay and read a book without even needing to prop up your head. I would pass the day napping and reading, or looking at the clouds until I slept again.
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| This little gem goes by the evocative name of Spring Beauty. |
When you simply lay still, face close to the earth, you notice things you don't otherwise. You really see, as Georgia would say. And what you see is a plethora of flowers so minute but so perfect, that God had to have created them for his own delight because humans don't have to capacity to appreciate them as we should.
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| These tiny flowers are called Bluets (perfect name) and they are so minute that a flower can fit in the cup of your pinkie nail. |
The miracle of spring sun and air worked its magic and I would feel better the next day. Something about basking on the grass in the sun is curative to an ailing body. There are still times when I look outside in the midst of a busy day and think how I would like to lay like a cat in a sunbeam.
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| These wild violets are ones that I dry to decorate cakes or use to make Wild Violet Jam |
If you think Spring Fever is a fictitious disease, think again. Some years ago our big woolly dog seemed to be ailing. She didn't want to play in the beautiful spring weather; she hardly wanted to lift her head. We took her to the vet only to be told she had Spring Fever. She was simply feeling low and needed a touch of vitamins to pep her back up. My great-granny would have prescribed a person a dose of sassafras tea or a dose of peppery watercress to "purify the blood" after a long winter of indoor living and heavy foods.
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| The humble Henbit flower. Despised by many as a weed, up close each flower has a spotted throat like a tiny orchid. |
"A weed is but an unloved flower." ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox
If you are
feeling under the weather, out of sorts, just plain wrong, try laying
in the yard for a bit. Don't take a phone or do any work. Let the sun
recharge your batteries. Maybe you will even find yourself in your own
tiny Eden of wildflowers.
But don't worry if you still feel a bit pent up and frustrated after
your basking. Spring, after all, is filled with the urgings of busyness.
Think of the birds hurrying to build nests, baby calves being born, the
whole world renewing. Perhaps you are still in bud and waiting to
unfurl...
My apple trees have small buds that are covered in furry velvet and shaped like the pad on a baby rabbit's foot.
The dogwood has beautiful flower buds like a nub of silver, and when it opens it is like a chrysalis releasing a delicate white butterfly.
I, too, feel in bud, like the sap is rising within me and urging me to grow.
"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~Anais Nin
To bloom is a leap of faith...
