20th April 2023

Here are more spring thoughts as it is such a wonderful season of change and new life, and who cannot be moved by it, feeling the joy as the outside world opens up ready for us to respond.

On the cusp

A new start for spring.  That means for awakening and unfolding and new colours and shapes and thoughts and sunlight shining and rain clouds storming and animals coming alive with passion and foolishness in all their mating rituals.

We are at the beginning of spring now so we are on the cusp.  The nights can bring frost and the days warm sunshine.  We are like deserts, like mountains.  The crocuses have gone, and primroses, violets and celandines take their place while the bluebells are just opening.  It is quite glorious.  The lawn is newly mowed and is a carpet of bouncy green to walk upon.  It invites your feet and your heart into its open space.  The trees are still bare but the buds are bursting.  A bird is singing.

This is the time to take internal skis or surf boards and launch off on the swells that are all around.  It is time for trimming, tying and mending so our feet and our heart are ready.  New dreams are waiting to be born, new friends to be found, new pathways explored, new ways of living lived out.  It is time to open the cupboards and bring out the good and sweep out the stale and the old.  And it is a communal dance, gathering together under friendly skies, working together in the gathering days.

This is from Where the Birds Sing: Wild Places for the Soul.

For more information see http://janeupchurch.co.uk/where-the-birds-sing/

Spring

I could fill a whole book
with spring.
Everywhere I look
life is bursting out,
such flowers, such scents,
and new-born leaves
so delicate and perfect.

I cheer as I see them,
stopping to look, to touch,
to smell.

Beauty calls forth beauty
and I blossom with them,
both of us offering
a hymn of praise
with our smiles.

This is from A Leaf between my Toes: Finding Wonder

For more information see http://janeupchurch.co.uk/a-leaf-between-my-toes/