Ebbing and Flowing

Yesterday dawned a most beautiful spring day, gifting us with sunshine, a cool breeze and temperatures in the mid-sixties.  That's a full 20 degrees cooler than it's been in Atlanta the last few days, so it was a welcome respite.  Next to the state park where the hubs and I usually "take our exercise" as the old-timers say, my neighborhood is my next favorite place to enjoy a walk, even more so than the park sometimes because I have a treasure trove of beauty right outside my back door.  So I hit the trail (a.k.a. the street) in my subdivision early and took in the fresh morning air.  I only have to take several loops to get in my one to two miles, and with the beauty of the countryside surrounding our house, my walks usually prove to be very enjoyable.  To the east is a farm with cows, including one mama and her baby whom I once photographed.  I'm sure that baby is all grown up now.  I silently chuckled to see that little family across the field staring me down. The resident donkey, on the other hand, is not so pleasant. I hear he is completely necessary to protect the cows, but he tends to bellow and carry on occasionally and that gentle breeze carries his music the 75 yards to my ears which happen to be relaxing on the screened porch.  To the north, south and west is undisburbed land if you don't count the plumbing fixtures rising about six feet out of the earth in our unfinished community.  They are pretty ugly but I don't let them bother me.

Getting in touch with nature, whether it's hiking at the park, napping on the beach listening to one of nature's perfect sleep aids, or photographing the weeds in my neighborhood (ha!), outdoor life inspires me. After all, one man's weeds are another man's flowers, and one gal's perfectly sandy beach nap is another one's sandy nightmare, right?  Nature gets me to thinking on subjects that go far beyond the beauty I see sprouting up all around me in the spring.  How do weeds grow so freely and easily yet it's a full-time job nourishing life into heirloom roses and the grass on the lawn?  Seriously though, I not only see signs of life in nature, but there are signs of the completion of life as well. As plants die off, snakes shed their skins, caterpillars morph into butterflies for their beautiful short lives, and ducks, chicks, and birds break out of their shells to move to the next stage, we see that the evenutal progress of life which we call death is a necessary part of that life.       

I think it so very interesting that it often seems  life and death go along together, almost like actors coming in and out as the scene changes. One leaves and the other comes in and begins their performance on this stage we call earth.  And how we view death as well as life plays a major role in determining our lifestyle and the way we form our opinions and make choices on how to live.  Those who believe life doesn't end when we leave earth and there is something better awaiting us tend to try and make their life count for more while here.  Many who live like hell on earth maybe don't believe there's gonna be one when they exit, or maybe life on earth is already hell, so they think it can't get any worse, which is really sad.  I believe there's a hell but I also believe there's a heaven.

So just as the tide goes in and out, repeating its maneuvers day in and day out and day in and day out, so does life and death.  I've had two of my friends lose a parent in the past two weeks, one a father and one a mother, and I've had a friend see her first grandchild born as well.  It almost never fails, when someone I know dies, someone else I know is welcoming a new addition to their family.  If I'm not mistaken, I think they call this the circle of life.  And, even though it is so much happier to see a new life come in than a life go out, a life well-lived can also be a celebration of remembrance when it ends.

The view from my back door

New residents at the park

Purdiest weed I ever did see

These don't smell too good, but they are easy on the eyes

Beach beauties

This may clog your nose, but the color will surely take your breath away

The Knockout roses, they are a bloomin'

Trust me, I focus on life more than death.  I consider myself a positive person, and try to make living and living well a priority every day.  But we can look at nature and see a pattern that repeats itself in plant life, animal life, and human life.  The wonders of nature give us something to marvel at, something to spark our imaginations, and something to help make sense of a world that seems so broken at times.  And something always, always to ponder, if we but listen to what nature is saying.