by Christine Maccabee

Slowing Down

As of this writing, it is still spring. I find springtime goes much too fast and comes much too slowly after a long, messy winter. In winter, I am dreaming of spring. I miss the green leaves and the wonderful life that springs from the soil…maybe that’s why it is called spring!

This spring, every time I passed by my purple iris, I took the time to smell its heavenly perfume, knowing its blossoms would come and go so quickly. Slowing down to do so becomes a few seconds of bliss during a busy day, a bit of aromatherapy to put a smile on my face and joy in my heart.

After an amazing rain the other night, I knew the box turtles would be trying to cross the roads to get to better hunting grounds, or so they think. So yesterday, unbeknown to me, a lone male turtle was in the middle of Black Road, leaving the safety of his woods and thinking the 15-acre lawn across the road might be better. Luckily, I was in no hurry to get home, so I stopped my car and rescued him from a life-threatening situation. He was peaceful as I carried him back to his wonderful woods, and I hope he never comes onto the road again.

Years ago, on a quiet Sunday morning, I found a turtle injured on Hamptown Valley Road by a car likely going too fast to be observant. I took the poor guy home. With surgical tape, his frontal shell was fused together again. After a month, fully healed, I released him. It only takes one.

As for gardening, I must admit that somedays I go non-stop,  practically forgetting to breathe as I multitask. Perhaps, innately, I feel I have to keep up with springtimes’ springing! However, since yesterday was going to be my day to go slower, I stood up frequently,  stretching and breathing in deeply the wonderful mountain air in between planting lupine and squash plants. Grown from seed in the greenhouse, these plants, like so many others, took their good old time getting to outdoor planting size. They were as eager to get out of their pots as I was to plant them, yet patience was needed, forcing me to go slow. 

Now summer flowers, berries, and veggies are slowly coming out, and gardeners are busier than ever. I know I am not the only avid gardener. Our backs and arms are aching from all the work. Still, the wisest of us know how important it is to slow down and smell the flowers, to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and spend quiet time listening to and observing nature’s miraculous springing forth during this time of “Greenleaf” (taken from the bestseller Warriors series about cat clans).

I will leave you with a few lines from a poem I wrote years ago:

 The most glorious sunrise                                              a newborn’s first cry,

            the blossom of bluebells

              in the welcome springtime.

  The beauty of summer

     all decked out in green;

         the lupine and poppy,

           a colorful scheme,

  All gone in an instant it seems,

  All gone with the passae of time.