#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Tree Fungus After Winter

"This outward spring and garden are a reflection of the inward garden."
-  Rumi

It was hard to wake up, even though sunny; a disturbing dream kept knocking me back to sleep for more working out of the emotions of loss. Even so, I did wake and felt such relief for a day of sunshine. And the river gave relief, shimmering and cheerful under the white clouds and deep blue. I was so glad to be out hunting beautiful things to see. There are so many shards of beautifully textured bark that have soaked up the rain. But Frank is in the yard with the tractor and so I shorten my walk and return, as promised, for a day of yard work, picking up brush, raking, trimming. After two hours, I’m exhausted and feel I’m done for the day. And yet I know he’s just getting started, and there are thousands of sticks of every size and shape blown and broken and dropped from trees. It takes me time, in the spring, to build up my stamina for this manual labor in the yard. I think I won’t go back to it after lunch. And then I do. I find a second wind, and Frank hasn’t stopped, and I go out and do a couple of more hours, grateful to have found the energy. We are making the property fresh and cleaned up. In the late afternoon, I sit down to rest and soon fall fast asleep for a short time. Then, it’s up again, to make dinner, and the groceries are being delivered and need to be unpacked and put away. Help materializes. Two daughters are in the kitchen, and we’re all working together and nobody has to be asked. I make the turkey chili I promised Frank–who is still using his tractor in the yard; and homemade cornbread, and everything gets done. And I feel grateful to have had such a physical day outdoors after so much sitting all week long. I remember this time a year ago, how tired I felt in the spring clean up beginning, and yet how quickly I built my stamina and kept it up through the late fall. The cycle begins again.