Ode to May
Spring is such a fleeting season in Vermont. It seems it will never arrive, and then it takes me by surprise. Every year. Tiny tree buds turn to leaves overnight. Daily walks in the woods provide increasing lushness. Spring green is here and gone, in a few short weeks. It demands appreciation. I am aMAYzed by it, in this fifth and most glorious month of the year. I suppose October is equally glorious, but we long for what May will provide, whereas October provides a last hurrah before subtle tones take over our world.
April offers peepers and some spring ephemerals. But May offers flowering trees and shrubs, in the forest as well as in yards. And May provides a spring green that is so fleeting that watercolorists struggle to keep it from turning to summer.
In my 70th spring, I approach May with the same level of awe I always have. As a child, I picked purple violets and white lilies-of-the-valley to place in tiny vases. I still do.
Life is full of losses, more so the older we become. Yet, life is also full of renewal. Loss of people, pets, relationships, jobs, careers, physical abilities, and cognitive abilities increase as we age, but we never lose our ability to marvel at the natural world we live in, to appreciate the mundane, and to love beauty.
All SO true.