Spring's Ache

 

 "Spring won't et me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again."

Gustav Mahler

Outside my window just now a tiny Anna's Hummingbird flits about the cedar hedge. Tree and hedges sway in the wind. I know it's a chilly wind in spite of the bright sunshine for I was outside thinking I might garden this morning. I think I'll wait until later. A glorious week of warmth and sunny skies is in our forecast, and I couldn't be happier. 

Hendersons Shooting Stars (dodecatheon hendersonii) bloom in a naturalized lawn we pass on our evening walk. They look as though they are ready to take off into the wild blue yonder. 

In the woods just a bit further along, Fawn Lilies (erythronium oregonum) look like stars facing downwards. Most of the ones I see are white, but there are pink and yellow varieties, as well. 

Taking a photo like this requires crouching low to the ground, and I use the tilt feature on my camera to view it. 

Both the shooting star and the fawn lily are native to North America. The shooting star occurs naturally on southern Vancouver Island, the only place it's found in Canada. 

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

Robin Williams

In my own garden this morning there are many promises being made. Lilacs and columbines form tight buds, blueberries will soon flower, and irrepressible mint is making a great come back from dormancy. Lemon Balm, strawberries, cornflowers and more are bursting with life. Soon there will be an explosion!

"Pretty? Oh, pretty doesn't seem to be the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful - wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here" - she put one hand on her breast - "it made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr. Cuthbert?"

said by Anne in L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables

I go out of my way to see this tree on my walks. It's awash with swoon-worthy blooms. This is its high season, lush with soft white and barely pink petals. I can't get enough of it. Like Anne above, it makes my heart ache with its beauty. 

"The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing...

For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have not yet visited." 

C. S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)

This ache of beauty, this longing, reminds me that we are spiritual beings with a desire for something beyond ourselves - for God. It reminds me that that I am merely human. 

One last prunus branch reaching up in evening light to the sky. It's truly a wonderful world, complex and full of brokenness, but utterly magical. Spring magic is some of the very best there is. 

What kind of promises is spring making in your corner?