Spring Woodland Wonder

Rue Anemone

Each time I take a walk in the woods I experience wonder and gratitude. I love it all—the tall trees towering high above me, tiny wildflowers that shyly peek out through the fallen leaves, vibrant green patches of moss, evidence of the cycles of life in fallen and rotting trees, and life force that I feel all around me.

This time of year before the mosquitoes are biting I can truly say I love it all. When the mosquitoes have appeared it is another story. Then I need to pick the right time of day (with a nice breeze) and wear appropriate clothing to avoid being covered with bites. Most years I avoid walking in Wolsfeld Woods from late May until first frost in the fall. These woods are full of low areas with water that provide perfect mosquito breeding grounds. Last year with our very wet spring the mosquitoes were fierce and numerous in these woods. This year with our dryer spring may be different.

My hikes are almost never fast hikes, as I take lots of time to stop and gaze up, down, and all around me. The leaves are just beginning to pop out at Wolsfeld Woods, one of my favorite places to hike. These woods are a remnant of the Big Woods that once covered much of central Minnesota and contain tall sugar maples, basswood trees, and oaks.

You might think that there is little to see this time of year before the leaves have emerged, but you would be wrong. The spring ephemeral wildflowers are in full bloom. Dwarfed by the tall tree trunks, they are easy to ignore. However, once you look carefully you will see evidence of bloodroot flowers which have already bloomed and dropped their petals, violets (yellow and purple), dutchman’s breeches, wild ginger, and rue anemone. Ferns are also unfurling their wonderful spiral fiddleheads. Jack-in-the-pulpit plants are emerging and soon will bloom with their wonderful hooded green flowers.

Rue Anemone

Today was the day to see rue anemone. Their cheerful bunches of flowers were in bloom all around me in parts of the woods.

“Beauty brings about what Iris Murdoch called ‘a nonselfing.’ She said that when you suddenly see something beautiful — her example was suddenly seeing a bird lift off — it brings about a nonselfing…

But that whole idea of the nonselfing — you see, when you talk about that you’re there but you’re not quite there, I think that’s a really creative moment because it is that moment when you, like a bird, take that lift-off. You’re not here and you’re not there. You’re in the rise… It seems to me a kind of a lift.” – Sarah Lewis, The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery

Though the trees are just beginning to leaf out, some trees are ahead of others in their leaf growth. Today, when I looked up at the tall trees overhead those trees that were further ahead in leafing out looked like flowers in the sky amongst the barer branches of the other trees. Bright yellow-green leaves and blue sky—beautiful!

Lift-off. Inhabit the in-between creative spaces of not here and not there. Experience some wonder today. Take a walk in the woods and notice the beauty of the life growing all around you.

May you walk in beauty.

I love the way ferns unfurl from their spiral fiddleheads

Look Up – flowers in the sky

Even the leaves of the rue anemone are pretty

New leaves look like flowers in the sky

Fern Fiddleheads – wonderful curves and shapes