Spring Stream

The Spring stream comes running down, shining refracted light off the snow around it as the water moves along the hillside, its music blending with the new birdsong, creating a composition that signals the end of a long Winter. From tiny tributaries in the frozen fields, the stream gathers its forces, multiplying, growing as the snow gives up its hold on the countryside. A glistening channel through a white and brown palette, reflecting off the earth, the sky. A hand put to the water there would quickly numb and freeze...this is liquid newly converted from its more solid form, still half in its old element. The rippling sound of the water's running is joined by a strange cracking as the ice weakens and starts to break up. The scents of loam and moisture send a heady rush, a sense of the potential growth hiding just under the surface of the soil. The sun shines down out of the blue sky, turning the cycle over out of the darkness and into the light, as in the soon-to-bud trees, oceans of birds sing songs of courtship, joy and of Spring.

Mink

Another day of rain in Spring...watching the puddles sprinkle themselves full, the little creeks run with fresh water, and my lawn get high as my knees...things are beautiful and lush this time of year. The wetlands are full of frogs singing their courting songs, and full of herons and cranes eating the frogs, and turtles coming out of hibernation to snarf up whatever it is they snarf. The other day I was driving down the dirt roads to my rehearsal at John's house, and I narrowly missed hitting a MINK! I hadn't seen one before in Michigan, but unmistakably a mink. Cyn says she's seen one too by that same swampland, so I'm guessing that there's a little minky community out there. This one had caught a vole or something and was carrying it across the street...presumably to its lair, perhaps to feed its little minklets. Very cool!

I'm aware these days of being pretty bipolar, and that's reflected in these posts I know. It's like being trapped in a black hole in space...the gravity of the hole is very strong. Sometimes I'll make my way out for a while, then get sucked back in. The good thing is that even in the worst of it I have the perspective that there's a better reality that I'll eventually get to. The bad thing is that even when I'm out of it I know that there's that black hole, exerting its gravity, ready to pull me in again. All I can do is try to keep positive as I can, stay healthy and all, and hope for the best (St. John's Wort helps a good bit too). But little things like mink sightings are very helpful for me, they show me a world outside of my head that is amazing, constant and beautiful.

The Tides Of March

Things are getting soggy around here...we've had about 4 days of straight rain. Sort of reminds me of the Northwest coast! There's a pretty amazing river running through our eastern field, back through some wetlands and over our neighbor's fields, off into the distance...a huge amount of water on the move. Looks pretty crazy, but this often happens. Then for a while the swamps are really swampy, and the frogs all wake up and start their annual Spring Orgy, and we know that the ice and snow are behind us for a bit. Strangely enough, the cats don't seem to want to get out in this stuff.

I've been feeling better and better recently, with more energy and positivity than is usual for my old cynical self, and having a pretty good time all told. Working on new music, spending a little more time in the gym, getting out and seeing friends. After the flu that almost did me in, and the winter that almost did the same, I'm starting to get that Spring vibe. Yeah, it'll freeze tonight, and maybe we'll get buried in snow again for a while, but I sense the warm coming on, and that's a good thing.