The birds call and answer, the wetlands alive with their song of spring and renewal. This place, this very special place, is home to dozens of species, including the osprey, common merganse, northern harrier, Cooper’s, rough-legged, sharp-shinned and red-tailed hawks, merlins, peregrine falcons, bald and golden eagles, sandhill cranes, sandpipers, gulls of all varieties, terns, owls, doves, woodpeckers, hummingbirds, swallows and corvids of all kinds, wrens, bluebirds, thrushes and warblers, purple finches and red crossbills, red winged black birds, Canada geese, ducks of all variety… the list goes on.
I sit and listen to them, wishing I knew what they were communicating to one another. The first mosquito of the year buzzes past, giddy and fat with the blood of its first victim.
It is well and truly here: spring.
Soon the wetlands will swell, pregnant with the glacial waters flowing from the mountains surrounding us.
Endless abundance of life will be borne, surround and infuse us with the knowledge that the greater strength lies in the natural world around us, a power and beauty we could never hope to match in anything less than abject adoration of it.
While the natural world gears up for activity and the toil of new life and love, it is incumbent upon us to take pause and allow for the wonder if it all. To slow down, even for a moment, and take it all in…
I have written similar sentiment before, and some of you may remember from columns years past. But it bears reminding, for myself as much as anyone, to slow down, be patient, and take care to not take for granted the gifts this life has bestowed upon me.
And gifts I have had aplenty, four that come to mind first, and I know there will more that will enter into my life when the time is right. I hear the whisper in the breeze flowing through those tall grasses just across the yard, calling to me to reach deep within myself and embrace the positive, hold it close and let it infuse me.
A friend of mine sent me a quote that has fast become one of my favourites, and it goes like this:
"Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast…a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."
-- Edward Abbey
Hear hear.
3 comments:
I love the quote! ...and my sentiment exactly.
You must have been sitting in your garden at the same moment I was reclining in mine.
What a sense of freedom, to have all the doors and windows open to embrace the warm breezes of spring!
And the birds! The birds...
This valley has been called the Serengheti of the North for the hundreds of different species that dwell or migrate through here.
Isn't it amazing to see a bald eagle wing its way over Main Street?
Or to watch a pair of ospreys return and settle into their nest above the backyard to raise this year's set of fledglings?
Or to listen to the early morning and late evening warbling of the robins?
Or even to watch the ravens flock about a bit of road kill hidden in the ditch?
Not to mention seeing the deer tiptoeing silently across the yard on a misty dawn.
And I often lie awake at night listening to the sharp yips and howls of the coyotes in the dark out on the reserve.
I am now sitting in my new office in a corner of the house with windows on almost every side. The way my space is set up, it feels as though I am perched out on the lawn!
The window is open, letting in the snow-scented breeze... and expletives as Gene walks by outside, smacking the side of his head on the protruding window!
Stevie,
Those are beautiful words. It's good to know there are many of us out there, living and loving life!
I did notice the geese are back from their winter migration here. Spring is upon us and patio weather will soon be here.
xx
AM
Hi Stevie, lovely inspiring words breathing the scents of spring over us. It's wonderful to know that spring invigorates all of us the world over, and that the beauty of new life is a never ending wonder. You are so much closer to it all there too..wonderful.
Life is good when the world wakes up and throws of its wintry mantle...I can feel the smiles from here!
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