May

Today we went on our first hike of the season (in our own neck of the woods - we went on a couple of hikes down south earlier this month...) and as we pulled up to park our car, we realized that it was exactly one year ago that we had taken our first hike of 2010.  Same day, same place. (Different trail - we're not that pathetic, thankfully)  We were alerted to this fact immediately by a police car flashing it's lights, a massive amount of cars, and trail runners emerging from the mountain, sweaty and triumphant - The Seven Sisters Trail Race had coincided with our hike again.

As we plodded up the mountain, intermittently graced by our athletic counterparts - muddy and bloody - drifting past us in the opposite direction, I found myself pondering cycles and time - how much things change, how much things stay the same, how some things seem so long, and some so short, and some both long and short simultaneously.  (This last one has always perplexed me, and awed me at the same time.)

Just two weeks ago I saw our first crocus poking it's head out of the ground in our yard.  Two days later all the crocuses were in bloom.

 

A few days later they had disappeared - delicate things - but the daffodils had come up, looking as though they were about to burst.

 

This is how they looked Easter morning, (see the eggs hiding in the background)  and this is how they looked when we returned home from brunch later that afternoon.

A week later, they are drooping over in the yard, about to return to the ground.  They gave us just enough time to scoop a few up to place in a glass full of water on our dining room table, so that we could look at them as we ate and remember how precious life is.

After waiting through winter and - what seems to me - an endless period of thaw, spring happens so quickly.  Too quickly.  It's like a wedding you have planned for a year - maybe more.  And just when it is time for you to don the taffeta and lace, to unite with your best self for all the world to see... it's over.  

People get married, babies are born, flowers bloom, the Seven Sisters Trail Runners pin on their numbers and run their race.  It is up to us to remember that although these things happen over and over again, every year,  that each moment is only its own.  It is up to us to slow down and treasure these miracles of everyday.

 Spring is here!