Spring Is Hesitant. Slow. Undecided.
HERE AT THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES BY THE MISSISSIPPI, Spring is hesitant. Slow. Undecided. One day it is here and the next day, maybe not. Snowflakes and raindrops alternate with sunbeams, but the temperatures remain consistently cold. Mostly. Our woodland frogs were singing two weeks ago but are now silent, and we are not sure if they are really done, or just frozen. Congregation members continue to return from the south—kingbirds and redwings and white-throated sparrows—but not in great numbers just yet. Our migrating ducks have passed through and headed on to the north, with some staying for the summer. Geese are in their nests, and noisily defend them. Our pair of eagles are on their nest as well, in their Big Pine.
A canoe outing yesterday provided sightings of mink and fox, while the last trip out we saw otters and beaver. The dock is now in the water, and it’s a pleasure to launch from it, or just to go and stand, or sit, and watch the river go by. In the woods the spring wildflowers—waterleaf and wild ginger and leeks and blood root—are up. But everything is slow. Tentative. No explosion of growth or activity. It’s cold. But perhaps that is well. Spring never lasts long enough in Minnesota. It is often just the three nice days between winter and summer. This year, perhaps, it will linger. And here at the Church O’ The Pines, we will enjoy every minute of it.
Good Sabbath to you…