Casting Spring
By Michael Erlewine
I am once again reaching toward spring, although practically speaking spring is still in the future. Even at the spring equinox here in northern Michigan is not quite spring. Yes, we can start to go out on the sunny days and walk again, but it pretty much takes until May before it really gets warm around here, and even then, it sometimes snows.
Why don’t I just move south and live there. There are reasons. Number one is we need to stay around our kids and grandkids. Number two, I don’t like the muddy water in the streams and creeks down south. Number three I don’t like the overgrowth on the forest floors. Where we live now there is little overgrowth and the woods are empty of it, almost like a cathedral. I believe the deer keep the growth down. And the winters here are harsh and long. No spring breezes until spring.
And there are other reasons. Add them all up and that’s why we live up here in Michigan. I’m always waiting for something. LOL. For me, waiting is a way of life.
Of course, I have interests, the chief of which is the dharma itself. It’s hard for me to find a dharma corner I have not ground down to where the rubber meets the road.
And I can only go so far before any forward dharma movement grinds to a halt, and I am just inching forward, waiting months to measure results. And these results are kind of biannual, Taking perhaps six month or longer to show or measure.
And for me the results of dharma practice are more like shifts, jolts, or minor avalanches, letting go of what has to be let go of. Things fall away, like snow falling off the roof as spring comes. I can feel my insides shedding history and I experience the increased clarity that results.
And so, right about now each year I cast about for whatever I can feel or sense. I search for meaningful conversations here and elsewhere and identify with those of you out there in a similar situation.
Spring promises sunshine, warmth, flowers, and the return of wildlife to the ponds, lakes, and marshes. Let’s see how long I can appreciate and hang onto summer before it just is hot and I lose touch with it wake up to find myself measuring the advent of Autumn. And we cycle around again.
[Photo by me, one of the few plants I have inside until the spring flowers appear.]
EMAIL Michael@Erlewine.net Note: If you would like to have access to other free books, articles, and videos on these topics, here are the links: SpiritGrooves.net.
As Bodhicitta is so precious,
May those without it now create it,
May those who have it not destroy it,
And may it ever grow and flourish.