Good Day for Ducks

With all of the rain that fell yesterday, it was a

and for all of the green growing things in our world. Each day more green is appearing, trees and plants are coming to life. I’m beginning to hear the spring peepers in the pond at night and on sunny days the log at the edge of the pond is filled with sunning painted turtles. I love this time of year and the fact that I am able to watch the pond life unfold through our windows.

A pair of wood ducks has claimed the wood duck birdhouse in our neighbor’s yard across the pond. And it appears that the female is now spending much of her time on the nest. Today I see the male swimming alone in the pond often near the nesting box.

I’m getting ready to head out for an afternoon walk. This time of year I take my camera with me all the time because there is so much new life popping up everywhere I look. Each day the haze of green of the newly leafing trees gets a little greener, a little more distinct.

Though I’ve been wanting to do some more serious photography work, I keep gliding along the surface making simple photographs of the things I love. And though I long to go deeper, to express feelings and ideas that I have been pondering, the time has not yet been right.

The Creative Process

The thing about the creative process for me is to keep doing the work even if I am making only sketch images. Seeing beauty in the ordinary and in life all around me is another kind of “doing the work.” I know that it will probably take time, many experiments and many failures as I explore some of the ideas I’ve been thinking about. So I give myself permission to glide along enjoying the arrival of spring.

I think it’s important to give yourself space to try, fail, give up, and then find something to reach for again creatively. The important thing is to not give up entirely and to say yes to whatever is going on at the time. You need to give yourself permission to be human and to fail, again and again. Failure is just another word for learning.

When I was working on my book last year, sometimes I got so frustrated that I stopped working on it for weeks and once for several months. But eventually I came back to it. Sometimes I changed direction or learned something new or discovered ideas I could let go. But I never told myself I should be doing something more or something different. Instead I simply accepted where I was and let my heart lead the way.

Instructions on Not Giving Up
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me. When all the shock of white
and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
the pavement strewn with the confetti of aftermath,
the leaves come. Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty. Fine then,
I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leaf
unfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.
— Ada Limon

If you are aspiring to create something and failing I beg of you to be kind to yourself and let yourself be just as you are. Find something you love to do or create and do that. Look for and find miracles and solace in nature, and say yes to all of life’s messy contradictions.

What is your favorite time of year? Do you also love spring and watching the leaves unfurl like flags in the warm spring breezes?

May you walk in beauty.