LOOKING UP

    Signs of spring are happening everywhere. It is a special time. Up here in the western mountains of Maine, winters can be absolutely freezing and also extremely snowy. The landscape is a vast track of white space spread before me as I gaze out the window. Winter has been pretty meh this year. Not much snow, very few days of below zero temps and a disappointing season for ice fishing. I know many local businesses have been impacted by the shortage of winter weather. I amazes me how deeply embedded in the changing seasons, is the day by day living of my life. I like it. I no longer spend 8 hours a day sitting at a desk or standing behind a counter. I no longer have to spend all my hours indoors. In fact, if I do stay indoors, I feel starved for the fresh air of the day. Spring brings a host of chores just like all the other seasons. Here where I live, we have 5. Spring, summer, fall, winter and mud season...and after living here for 15 years, I feel like the seasonal cycles are part of my blood. Today I felt the quickening.

     It is the end of February. This morning there were two huge turkeys feeding on the back hill where the blueberries grow. They came down to check out the hens I think. Stephen let the girls out to roam
for the first time since December when the snow was deep enough to impede the opening of their coop door. It was eye opening to see the difference in their size. Those wild turkeys made my chickens look tiny. A shiver of gladness moves through me when the local wildlife comes to call. One morning a few weeks ago, it was fun to see moose tracks making a path from the woods up behind us to the road where the tracks disappeared. Reestablishing a connection to the wild is one of the primary reasons we decided to move north. The landscape, the river, the forests and the trees are all a daily delight. Last week a huge gathering of Cedar waxwings descended on our flowering cherry tree. In moments, the berries were gone. The tree was wiped clean. And today, who should show up but 3 red winged blackbirds returning from their wintering territories. February 28th seems pretty early. But today was also the beginning of a four day stretch of warmth that motivated Stephen to set his taps. The sap is running and there is absolutely nothing like the ritual of the tapping of the sugar maples to lift winter from my heart. Don't get me wrong. I love winter. I love the snow and the pulling inward and the cozy talks by the fire. I love the reading and writing time that opens up when I am forced to spend much of the day inside. I paint with an art class all winter and it soothes my hunger for color. But something magical happens in my bones when the trees begin their waking up from winter routine.

   The light changes. The darkness in my spirit lifts little by little as the days lengthen. Sometimes I am prone to falling into a depression when the days of darkness descend. With all these signs of spring I can feel my heart getting lighter as well. I have been sad and angry about our country and the political circus going on, about the gun violence, the rampant racism and the suffering of so many people in flux at this time. Winter can lead me into too much screen time. I become edgy and feel pretty despondent about the state of humanity. Today, as the signs of spring lined up and marched into my heart, I noticed a change in me. Focusing on the birds, the wildlife, and the running sap that will call on us to sit outside for whole days at a time slowly burning away the water to render the sap into syrup...has gently turned my heart toward the natural beauty of my environment and the hope of returning life. It is quite clear to me today that looking around, looking outside, and breathing the air of today, that things seem to be looking up.

Looking up opens my heart to the colors of the sky...the budding of the trees and the returning birds.
Seems simple enough...but I'm amazed at how much joy is stirred by the turning of the season from winter to spring. I pray that today's parents are getting outside and into nature with their kids. Sanity seem to hide in the process of unplugging. If you are constantly looking at a screen...how can things look up?