It's eerily quite outside....like packing when you know that you must go and you don't want to...you're just not ready. It's like things go in slow motion, the folding of garments, the laying into suitcases, the fighting back tears. And so it seems today with winter. She knows her days are numbered in this cycle of life--the winter of 2010-2011.
She gave us quite a show this year. She danced and swirled. She blew and came in fiercely at times. At times she threatened to turn on the big guns...and in some places south of us, she did. It was as though someone laughed at the beginning of winter and said something snidely about how mamby pamby she was last year....how she allowed spring to slip in early and how the sun came shining through to the delight of everyone in New England. She took offense, loaded her guns and in an Annie Oakley style, she hit us with some of her best shots this winter. And she may not be done yet.
But today, the sky is overcast with sadness.You can hear the melt-off trickle down the street into the sewer drains. The patches of grass have grown larger over the past few days.
Mother Nature knows it's time to pack up her winter clothes and start washing out her spring frocks. Daylight will linger a little longer today and even in the quiet gloominess there is hope in the air. The taps are in and the trees once more have awakened. Mardi Gras is over, Lent has begun and it is true...Spring is just over the horizon and I can hardly wait to see it!
bring us rain (if you must) but bag up the snow and put it in the freezer for next year. In 2008 before the micro-burst and then the tornado took away all our lovely trees...I wrote a poem about the cycles Mother Nature takes us through....most of the trees are gone ...the one I wrote the poem to no longer stands in our side yard....but I still think of her when I read it.....
Mother Nature's Blessing
Pack up your things my lovely summer girl
For sadly bright sundresses no longer flit and furl
You’ll now wear frocks of gold and red
Royal crimson ribbons tie round your drying head
The daffodils have all now gone to bed….
Your hair will flip and turn in the cold wind
And to the ground pieces of your crown you’ll send
And when full force is felt…sometimes you’ll bend
And yet you will not fall
For we are watching you to set our clock
As time is moving on….
Your arms will be covered with white heaviness
And yet you’ll feel no pain
We call you beautiful, magnificent,
And yet you are not vain
You will look thin and we will call you bare
Our hearts will break for what we think… no longer there
But in your depths much life does still remain
Soon some of you will give up sweetness that we drain
You are a queen and very tall you stand
You are our hope in winter’s wonderland
As time is moving on…
And then one day a tiny sign will show
And from that sign new life somehow you’ll grow
From a tight nub of newness-- of greenish gold
Fullness will swirl out and then unfold
……..to fill your head with a new rich crown
And you will lift our spirits once again
Sweet springtime rains will renew and refresh
You’ll spread your arms and show off your green dress
As time is moving on….
Blue skies will be your background
The sun will make you grow
Sweet gentle summer rains will moisten you
And set your crown aglow
You’ll shelter us from brightness
And cool us from the heat
Provide a place for us to write
And we sit at your feet
….as time is moving on
As time is moving on, you are …
The one that we look up to
The towering beauty queen
a strength on a cold night
a sign of renewal with but a hint of green
a shelter to an apple, a home to a sweet pear
a rainbow of warm colors no others can compare
you’re roots run deep and when we look at you, we see
that Mother Nature blessed us,
with you…my precious tree.
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