The Power of Spring
As epiphanies often go, it was unexpected, and oh so satisfying. This spring season has been particularly fantastic - there are bumblebees, butterflies, dandelions, ducklings - all tripping over themselves to give you epiphanies of life, miracles, hope and so on.
One such day, we sat watching lazy waves rippling through a large pine tree. The previous day had been a cold, and windy day, we had scuttled inside for warmth. The next day was warm, pleasant and entirely suited to lounging around watching wind waving through pines, firs, and gingkos.
The house was filled with noises of spring - young children exclaiming at blueberries, standing on tiptoes and peering up at the oranges on the tree, running through the house in a mad scramble looking for juice packets and snacks while playing freeze tag or mock-cricket.
When the next stampede grew closer, I wondered whether to move aside from the herd of stampeding rhinos, or sit my ground and continue gazing at the roses in bud, and the pine in the wind. I continued to sit, and luckily, the fellows stopped, and one-by-one they all flapped around, and flopped on the grasses.
"What are you thinking about?"
The Ginkgo's Wisdom
I told them, and they sat pondering for a moment, sipping their juice. I couldn't resist the pull of a quiet moment, and an uncharacteristically pliant audience. "Did you know about the ginkgo trees?" I asked my young fellow admirers of wind and trees.
Thrilled that they didn't all know, I launched on the ginkgo train - telling them about how they were around from the days of the dinosaur, and how they all communicated to each other, and decided when to shed their leaves. The son said that one of the trees will slow down if it is going too fast in the color changing race, waiting for its fellow ginkgos to catch up.
"Like friends are supposed to be!" piped up another.
I beamed appreciatively. "Yes - exactly like friends - all helping each other get there. Together."
Read also: The night of the Gingko : By Oliver Sacks in the New Yorker magazine.
The day's epiphany done, the playgrounds beckoned, and I let them all run off their sugar highs before expecting them to quieten down for the night. I wonder how the birds manage to quiet their brood when they've had a little too much nectar. That epiphany can't wait for another day.
"A real artist is the one who has learned to recognize and to render the 'radiance' of all things as an epiphany or showing forth of the truth." ~ Joseph Campbell
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