The Melt

The first day of spring arrived and the ground was still covered with snow. But somehow, it feels different now, as if spring really is arriving. When I look out my bedroom window in the morning I can see that

The Melt

has begun. The surface of the snow looks different, as if it is receding from below. And ever so slowly the snow IS receding day by day. On the first day of spring I decided to document the melt, photographing the view from my meditation chair beside my bedroom window. Here are the photos from the first three days…

Spring melt March 20, 21, 22

You can see that the snow is receding a little bit each day. This morning for the first time in quite awhile I could see some of the ice on the pond, not just the piles of snow covering it.

And though I would love for all of the snow to be melt immediately, I know that a slow melt will be helpful in preventing or minimizing spring flooding. I am happy just to feel the trees and the land awakening. Yesterday I saw a large “V” of Canada geese high in the sky flying north.

I plan to continue my daily spring melt photos from the bedroom window until the backyard is completely snow-free. Unfortunately our front yard with the piles of snow  from clearing the driveway, sidewalk and street will take much longer to be snow-free. Along with the large amount of snow piled up, the front of the house faces north-east, so the front yard is often in the shade during the day.

So I will practice patience as I watch the melt slowly uncover the land and I wait for the trees and the earth to wake up from their winter sleep.

Patience

If you know me well you will know that I am not known for my patience. But when one is waiting on mother nature, what else can one do, but be patient? My strong desire for things to be different does not make them different. So I may as well figure out a way to be happy now, in this moment.

Patience

What is the good life now? Why,
look here, consider
the moon’s white crescent

rounding, slowly, over
the half month to still another
perfect circle–

the shining eye
that lightens the hills,
that lays down the shadows

of the branches of the trees,
that summons the flowers
to open their sleepy faces and look up

into the heavens.
I used to hurry everywhere,
and leaped over the running creeks.

There wasn’t
time enough for all the wonderful things
I could think of to do

in a single day. Patience
comes to the bones
before it takes root in the heart

as another good idea.
I say this
as I stand in the woods

and study the patterns
of the moon shadows,
or stroll down into the waters

that now, late summer, have also
caught the fever, and hardly move
from one eternity to another.

   — Mary Oliver .

I’ve been making more photographs of the flowers I bought last week and enjoying seeing them every day in my dining room studio. I’ll leave you with some of my favorite photos of the past few days.

May you walk in beauty.

A crow flying over the pond