Spring Blooms – Late Blooms

“The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is - to bloom. (“A Story About The Most Important Thing”)” ― Yevgeny Zamyatin — **“The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is – to bloom. (“A Story About The Most Important Thing”)”**
**― Yevgeny Zamyatin**

Spring is that glorious time of year when every leaf, flower, shrub, and grass is a welcome sight. I like to think of it as the magic of spring. It doesn’t matter how beautiful and glorious last year’s spring and summer were, we relish the present year’s spring with abandon. “Every spring is the only spring — a perpetual astonishment.” – Ellis Peters.

“A tulip doesn’t strive to impress anyone. It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn’t have to. It is different. And there’s room in the garden for every flower. You didn’t have to struggle to make your face different than anyone else’s on earth. It just is. You are unique because you were created that way. Look at little children in kindergarten. They’re all different without trying to be. As long as they’re unselfconsciously being themselves, they can’t help but shine. It’s only later, when children are taught to compete, to strive to be better than others, that their natural light becomes distorted.” ― Marianne Williamson — “A tulip doesn’t strive to impress anyone. It doesn’t struggle to be different than a rose. It doesn’t have to. It is different. And there’s room in the garden for every flower. You didn’t have to struggle to make your face different than anyone else’s on earth. It just is. You are unique because you were created that way. Look at little children in kindergarten. They’re all different without trying to be. As long as they’re unselfconsciously being themselves, they can’t help but shine. It’s only later, when children are taught to compete, to strive to be better than others, that their natural light becomes distorted.”
**― Marianne Williamson**

Yesterday was my day to take a conscious/mindful walk and be immersed in the beauty of the natural world in my own little neck of the woods. There is no beauty like Nature. I also took my camera along to capture some of this beauty for later on. One of my favourite authors, John O’Donohue, had this to say about beauty: Beauty isn’t all about just nice, loveliness like. Beauty is about more rounded substantial becoming. So I think beauty in that sense is about an emerging fullness, a greater sense of grace and elegance, a deeper sense of depth, and also a kind of homecoming for the enriched memory of your unfolding life”

"O the green things growing, the green things growing, The faint sweet smell of the green things growing! I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve, Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing." - Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Green Things Growing — **“O the green things growing, the green things growing,**
**The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!**
**I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve,**
**Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.”**
**– Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, Green Things Growing**

At this stage of life, I feel like those words of John O’Donohue ring true for me. At a younger time of life, I enjoyed the season of spring but I didn’t take the time to enjoy it’s beauty in a mindful way. The beauty of spring was just taken for granted. It’s beauty was just there. Yet, I do feel now that something deep within myself connects me with what is beautiful in every blade of grass, every blossom, and every flower – indeed every sign of spring. There is a feeling of “fullness” and “connection” (O’Donohue’s words) with the beauty I see and truly my life is unfolding day by day.

Greenery in High Park

I hope this doesn’t sound too ethereal because this connectedness and recognition are very important facets to the depth of this beauty. I don’t know whether other people of my age or stage of life have this feeling but I’m happy to have this kind of experience and share it. Perhaps, it’s about having more time now and taking the time for the admiration and appreciation of Spring’s beauty. Perhaps, it is the realization deep down that the Springtimes I will see are getting shorter. Whatever it is, I am really savouring every moment. I also have some more images (below) to share with you from my lovely Spring walk in High Park. Enjoy!

“We cannot direct the wind but we can adjust the sails.” -Author Unknown

“The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”

John O’Donohue (from To Bless the Space Between Us)