Spring came early to Indiana this year! We observed spring ephemeral wildflowers, the return of migrating birds, and morel mushrooms growing all between 5-12 days earlier than last year. This week has been kind of a motivational lull for me so it was therapeutic to work on my nature journal #phenologywheel — and joy-filling to recount the stories of togetherness with my kids and husband (and beloved dog) encountering everything I have documented here.
Also ... Wendell Berry has been ringing in my head a lot this month:
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
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For all my new followers -- I have a stories highlight as well as an entire blog post on phenology wheels and nature journaling. I explain how I create this, what resources I use, and where I get the data, as well as point you in the direction of others who create these. Let me know if you have any questions! Happy to chat any time.
Gratitude is additive, not competitive. I would like to share what I am grateful for right now, as a means to sort of express a part of the wide range of emotions I am (and I am guessing you are) feeling at the present moment. But I want to say outright: I do not want my gratitude to come across as me thinking my life is better than yours. It is not.
I am grateful that I am a mom. I love being a mom. And the truth is: there have been seasons of my life where saying that was next to impossible.
Yes, motherhood is work and turmoil and fear and annoyance and insecurity and sleeplessness. But it is never just one of those things. Just as a human is never solely one thing -- if all of us were cast in a movie based on our worst failings, we would all be the villain.
And so yes, it's hard and I've failed at it. Many times. But I'm not defined by the failures.
A lot of times the bright and beautiful moments shine through. Love wins. And we see it. And feel it. We are together basking in the sun.
And today, I'm taking a moment to say I'm grateful for it. I'm grateful for my kids and that I get to be their mama. I'm grateful for their life full of play and adventure. For this wild woodland home. For our life where school feels nothing like school. And for the ability to sneak chocolate from my secret stash, even before breakfast.
What are you grateful for today? I would love to hear some positivity in the grim storm we are living in.
📷: @timstreetphoto
