Spring is nearly gone (the equinox is coming soon) and we didn’t get a garden planted until yesterday. We’ve had snow on our yard within the last three weeks. Late start.
The result of the abiding winter is nature has just begun to wake up. The evergreens are shooting out their new season’s growth. I’ve been noticing again how even the most prickly evergreens, like the Colorado Blue Spruces, are so soft and fern-like in their new shoots. Pretty, and very soft and agreeable, in addition to being fragrant. We still get glimpses of Eden in the Spring, even in this fallen world.
Just before dark takes over the neighborhood each night the quail are hooting to get back together again. They get separated during their daily foraging and then want to regroup as a family before nighttime slumber. They will get in a tree or on a rooftop and begin to hoot. They make a funny little call. You can tell by the answer coming back which ones belong together. They hoot, get closer, re-call again, get closer, until finally they wind up together and quiet.
Deer have been wandering through the neighborhood all winter long. They seem to be clearing out now because the valley is getting warmer, and there’s new growth on the foothills from the melting snow. The mountain tops are still under many feet of snow, so the deer won’t really return to the high ground until another month or so.
There’s an order to all this stuff. Wild and uncontrolled nature is organized, orderly, intelligent and the animal kingdom is divided into families. They feel joy at their companionship with one another as they fill the measure of their creation.
I am grateful each night, too, as my family gathers together to see each of us has made it through the day safely. There’s a Divine hand that can be seen in family life. Even when there is difficulty and disappointment, the family is tied together by God and nature.