A lovely walk with friends down by the creek, dotted with fleeting spring ephemerals at every turn. The trees are leafing out and the sky was as blue as it gets.
People have no respect for impermanence. We take no delight in it; in fact, we despair of it. We regard it as pain. We try to resist it by making things that will last — forever, we say — things that we don’t have to wash, things that we don’t have to iron. Somehow, in the process of trying to deny that things are always changing, we lose our sense of the sacredness of life. We tend to forget that we are part of the natural scheme of things.
~ Pema Chödrön
(When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times)
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky —
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #466)
We are seeing, then, that our experience is altogether momentary. From one point of view, each moment is so elusive and so brief that we cannot even think about it before it has gone. From another point of view, this moment is always here, since we know no other moment than the present moment. It is always dying, always becoming past more rapidly than imagination can conceive. Yet at the same time it is always being born, always new, emerging just as rapidly from that complete unknown we call the future. Thinking about it almost makes you breathless.
~ Alan Watts
(The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety)
The green-and-golds and the violet wood-sorrels were new wildflowers for me.
Thank you for sharing a North Carolina spring. Your pictures bring back so many wonderful memories of playing in the woods of my childhood.
You’re welcome, Anna. I get that same feeling when I see pictures of the woods in New England on a couple of other blogs I read.
Lovely to see spring ephemerals and the lush green of new leaves, a sneak preview of things that will emerge here in a few weeks. Love the quotes, I think about mindfulness so much, but one never truly grasps just how slippery the present moment is!
Slippery is such a great word to describe the fleeting nature of living in the present! Makes me think of Joan Tollifson’s book, Nothing to Grasp. The ephemerals are here so briefly, as if to remind us to appreciate mindfulness every spring. Enjoy yours soon!
No Spring ephemerals here yet, not even the Spring Beauties which are the first wildflowers I see around the tree trunks at Council Point Park. For some reason, the Spring Beauties were only on one side of the Park, opposite to where they tore down everything. I’ve never any of the other pretty wildflowers and what a treat it was to see that canopy of green. The Wild Azalea is beautiful as is your first dragonfly this year.
How interesting that spring beauties are the first ephemerals you see every year – I’ve only seen them twice in my life, both times down here. Apparently they are found in Connecticut, too, but I never noticed one up there, perhaps because no one ever pointed one out to me. We had an abundance of bluets near my childhood home, but there aren’t too many around my new home, making them extra-special when I do see them.
I’ve never seen bluets except in your blog posts. I was at Elizabeth Park one year in early Spring. I saw Spring Beauties around the base of a lot of the trees. To me, the Spring Beauties and the Red-winged Blackbird returning to the marsh signify Spring here in SE Michigan.
It must be lovely to see a big patch of spring beauties – the ones I saw were all by themselves. Thanks for the photo of them around the base of a tree, now I can picture what they look like in a group. 🙂
You’re welcome and yes, it is like a breath of fresh air Barbara, especially when they are like a carpet around a tree trunk. I finally saw some Daffodils today, but had to go to the Botanical Gardens to see them. No Spring Beauties at Heritage Park though.
It’s that pleasant time of year when every time we go out we see different things turning green or blossoming. 🌼
Yes, I was happy to see some color yesterday. I imagine after this week of rainy/stormy weather there will be some greens and colors popping up!
Here are my Spring Beauties around the base of a tree:
https://lindaschaubblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/spring-beauties.jpg
Such lovely spring wildflowers you found, Barbara — thank you for sharing them! I’m not sure I totally agree with that first quote though (perhaps I’m misinterpreting it?). It seems to me that people nowadays are far too inclined to revere the throw-away mentality — use it up and throw it out.
You’re welcome, Debbie! I agree with you about that throw-away mentality. As is often the case, two opposing things can be true at the same time. Since I learned about dialectical reasoning I am seeing examples of it every time I turn around. Interesting which things we toss aside without a second thought, and which things we cling to and refuse to let go of.
I love spring, and these cute spring blooms! Thanks for sharing! Spring is slowly coming to life around here. Trees are budding, and the hyacinths and daffodils are out. Impermanence should help us remember to appreciate the present moments.
You’re welcome, Karma! So happy to hear that spring is finally making an appearance up there! Seeing the trees start to bud and the bulbs popping up always warms the heart, at the same time reminding us of how brief the time is for enjoying them.
Hmm, I just posted a comment and now it seems to have disappeared into the ether, so my apologies if you get this twice.
I love spring, and I love these blooms you have shared. Spring is slowly coming around up here – trees are budding, and the hyacinths and daffodils are up. I’m impatient for more but I will appreciate what is still to come. Impermanence, like you mentioned, should remind us to be in the present moment.
Not sure what happened there but I do know my son was doing some maintenance on my blog that morning, so maybe your comments weren’t getting through for a few minutes. My apologies for the confusion!
No apology necessary – my apologies for the repeated comments!
I so very much enjoyed your quiet celebration of impermanence here, Barbara. There’s a lot about spring that expresses this, and you did a wonderful job of capturing it in dainty, fleeting wildflowers and the wisdom of several writers. I find embracing impermanence helps a lot with grieving the loss of loved ones, and I imagine you are doing the same. Cheers, dear Barbara.
Thank you, Jet. I agree, it can be very cathartic and healing to meditate on impermanence as the waves of grief come and go. Nature has so many things to teach us when we pay attention, especially to the little things. 🌼