Look, the buds on the Pussy willow are beginning to pop! The Mountain Mint battles the still frosty ground and the Red-winged Blackbirds chant from the tall grasses to tell the world now that it is time for all to wake up.

It’s the same with many of us. Some folks dare to step a foot outside again, things are even beginning to sound different, we can hear the birds that since time and immemorial told us of the seasons arrival. Even the sky is changing. The clouds are different, the mud squishes under our feet, the sun shines longer and warmer, and a spring  flower tries desperately to attract our attention, asking only for a nod as we run to the next scheduled parking lot – concrete and steel event.  

Mourning Cloak butterflies will startle you on your walk through the woods. Robins will find places to raise the next generation right under your window.  The magnificent colors of the Tree swallows will soon brighten our everyday lives as the Monarch Butterflies and the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds once again begin their incredible, perilous spring journeys.

The magic of nature is endless, its events boundless, its connection to all of us forever ageless, and it is just waiting patiently, but never pausing, for us to take notice, breath it all in and let it soak back into our souls in whatever way we are able.

Nature is the one true constant, it is the reality getting overwhelmed by a simulated world with no basis in who or what we truly are, or what we always have been, which is part of nature as much as any bird or flower.

Get outside this spring, connect with it, take it all in, become a kid again.  It is there for all of us to enjoy, experience and to help us all to heal.  No matter who we believe ourselves to be, who we love, where we live, how much money we have or don’t have, get back into nature, learn again to love it and, once you do, remember to preserve and protect it, for all of us and forever.

See you in the Meadowlands!