Spring: A State of Mind

Spring in southern Oregon's Rogue Valley seems very elusive this year. We have had day after day of

rain and chill. And yet, the hills and gardens are wildly green. The bees are back, humming everywhere as I walk and walk.

The bees are lovely in their working music. Their motion and color dazzle and amuse me. Often, I lean in to honeysuckle or wisteria just to be with them. They go on about their business, paying me no mind, or at least none that leads to a sting, a natural world reproach.

And so writing this I consider: surely spring has come to my valley after all. Spring is an event of earth and sky, an emotion of weather. It is also a state of mind, an inner weather and emotion.

My spring may be wet and gray and chilly, but it is my spring just the same. It's thrilling to be here, in it, part of it. When the sun arrives, it will be just as thrilling to say hello, welcome back. It's enough that my mind is filling up with the season's colors—gray, green, blue, white, yellow. The word, yellow . . . it sounds so much like hello.

Hello, and blessings and happy spring to you wherever you are.