holding the past season as new growth begins
forest & flowers spring field notes
LOOK CLOSELY… and notice old, dead stems and branches lingering alongside new growth coming from the trees and plants rooted into the Earth.
These old structures from last season have offered food, shelter, and covering like a blanket of hibernation during winter. Nature is simultaneously holding the past season as the new growth begins.
The light comes and begins to transform the landscape naturally. It doesn’t happen instantly on the day of the Spring Equinox but it’s a process of transmutation. Eventually, we prune, or plants naturally let go to make way for the new growth — a new cycle.
We too walk a path of simultaneously holding old structures and patterns in our life, while stepping into new ways of being.
At this threshold, nature shows us to allow it all to be there — there is no need to rush to let go. It’s an inevitable process as we energize the pathways that are alive within us now. Just as the plant opens towards the light and begins to grow, we can allow ourselves to receive nourishment.
Nourishment in the basic ways we move, eat, and sleep, as well as deep inner nourishment in the way we tend to our inner landscape.
As we seek to be understood, may we offer ourselves understanding.
As we seek love, may we offer ourselves love.
As we seek to be consoled, may we offer ourselves consolation.
From within, it’s in giving that we receive. Nourishment.
Sharing with you here, a photo collection of early Spring from Forest & Flowers in Pennsylvania. I welcome your reflections in the comments below — it keeps this journal alive. Thank you for being here and for your reciprocity.
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Thank you 🙏 "We too walk a path of simultaneously holding old structures and patterns in our life, while stepping into new ways of being" - true and beautiful.
stunning to honor the past as a shelter for what's coming... beautiful, Jenni.