It's gorgeous out. Spring is getting ready to have sprung, and I did my part in my little walkway garden; I cleaned out all of the dead leaves and dead, last-year's-growth of lavender and iris and phlox and random annuals that had been just sitting there, looking grey and brown, old and used up. The crocus are already at it, purple and white and gold. (Aren't those the colors the Christian church is displaying/will display for Easter? Hmmm. Copying nature again...)
The daffodils have buds, and a few of the more adventurous strains have already opened, and the tulip leaves are there, to indicate where the patches of red and pink and white will be later. It's neat how there's a progression to the blooming; not like in the movie The Secret Garden where everything flowered at once (it was a good movie, anyway).
Mucking around in my "little patch of earth" always makes me think about cycles; my own moods and interests, and the much more universal turnings of the seasons... All those quotes come to mind...
To every thing (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)...
and a time to every purpose under the heaven
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8*, except for the "turn, turn" part, who sang that, anyway?
and
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
~Psalms 30:5*
and
e.e. cummings' (listen)
I'm just glad to live in a place where there are seasons. They help me remember that things pass, and heal, and we all get a chance to start over.
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*There seems to me to be a universality to these quotes that goes beyond one faith. I'm not even Christian; I was just raised that way. But maybe it's just me.
Thanks to Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett...