Early Spring Renewal

Spring is the air. April is upon us. The passing winter came and visited upon us many interesting experiences. Coming out of winter with a renewed sense of what is appreciated deeply, the people, the places and the situations, is good. We can encounter many circumstances that challenge us to seek balance and a steady way forward. Spring tends to be a good time for each of us to ask ourselves what serves us in our lives and what requires adjustment.

As we begin to tend our gardens from the difficult winters they have had. As we begin to stack the stone walls that fell over under the weight of the deep snow. Let us allow the sensibilities of this time to penetrate our better selves. Let us find what serves us well and know without doubt that it is for us. The garden seems a good place to do that, while weeding and planting, perhaps adding compost to the beds for the seedlings that will grow into the season.

We hopefully are open to those things that may seem a little awkward, but like weeks old kittens finding their legs; to see their play as part of their joy and realization they are alive, may require a different prospective. It seems okay to be excited by life's gifts as a young kitten in spring. Let us make small incursions into the rest of the garden, we will perhaps appreciate the garden more as Spring warms on.

Our two boys life...

I recently finished reading Abigail Thomas's book My Three Dog Life. It's a wonderful book, I highly recommend it for anyone who has had to make unexpected adjustments to their lives as a result of a lose of some kind. She writes beautifully well, speaks gently and simple, and gathers you in with her as she journeys along an unfamiliar path.

It got me thinking about the two new additions to the lives that Thadd and I live. It is probably the other way around, they are folding us in. Jill and Lil to be exact. Jill rescued me at an all day poetry marathon we both attended back in November. Up until that point, I had spent the last 6 months basically on a sabbatical to readjust my life. I sat a couple of rows behind her and noticed how much she just altered the feeling in the room. We both read and shared that day and she decided to take a big risk and converse with me about what we had discovered in each others poems. She said in our first letter exchanges that it was fresh and not at all trite of a first meeting, I agreed. Its was filled with possibility and intrigue. Time has passed and its only getting better.

Jill and I went for a walk less than a week ago (Dec 14th), we came across a little precious stray cat I named Little Jill, or Lil for short (Jill is very patient and I can imagine she is tolerating the whole name thing just to humor me...). The weather had changed suddenly, It had started to snow as dusk approached and we, meandered through the streets and enjoyed our walk. Out of no where it seemed came a little darling, running up to us in the middle of the street where we had stopped to look back at the City view, Lil came running up to Jill and I and just rubbed up all over us as if to say...I need a home, things are not so good. We did the natural thing and knocked on doors, we asked around and found no takers. Eventually we decided, as the storm blow in, we could not leave Lil out there to work her way back home. We bundled her up and walked her home to my place a few blocks away. Upon arriving, we proceeded to introduce Lil to Thadd, the resident Cat of our humble abode.

Lets just say it has been a few tense days, I send Jill daily updates of their antics and ways. The other day, I put them up in the attic with instructions to work it out or else I would step in. Yesterday, while sitting in bed writing away, Thadd walked up to a sleeping Lil and begun to groom and wash her neck. What was amazing about it was that, half asleep, Lil reached out and licked Thadd's paw. It lasted a few minutes, but the bond was made and I thrilled like a child to tell this to Jill. The three of us spend our days in tow, moving from room to room wondering why we don't have our Jill. Thadd and Lil are adjusting well and we are all growing very attached to Li, even Jill.

Jill is also a wonderful addition to our lives. She is gentle and sweet and writes us beautiful letters. She is a lady in the classic sense, she is delicate, but oh so passionate. She is definitely her mothers daughter, she writes us wonderful poems about daughters who have kitten soft dreams. We enjoy having her come over on occasion and spend precious times with us. I wonder often if Thadd and I needed Jill and Lil. My house mate Renee remarked the other day about how wonderful it was that Jill and I found and rescued a pregnant cat just before Christmas. She likened it to the nativity story in the bible. I never thought about it that way, but I shared the remark with Jill the next day and she had the same reaction as i did. We both could see the irony in the timing of it all.

In this season of Christmas and Hanukkah , the times we live in, and the confused ways of our world. It has been going through my mind that perhaps we are all fortunate to have come together at this time. All four of us have experienced loss in this last year. We all have amazing hearts and care deeply for our fellows and friends. Despite our individual hardships we all four have an amazing capacity to love, be compassionate and exercise the true spirit of forgiveness. We are all humble and share what we have willingly with those who have a need. We tend to reject greed and have stopped asking why not us. We instead have looked inward and found a joy in those near us that nourishes and nurtures us one day to the next. As Jill says we leave room to have our toes tingle from the little joys we experience each day.

I for one on behalf of Thadd will like to say a heart felt thank you to Jill and Lil, The two of you have been exceptionally generous with your love and acceptance of us. We were just two boys, hold up in our little urban village home, writing away at our manuscripts, trying to find a publisher to take us seriously, taking walks and learning to live on less, when the two of you walked in and lifted us to our best. Thadd and I are the better for it all. We are hopeful. We have learned much from the risk you ladies took. You did not let us retreat into our shells, you would not hear of it. You stopped us cold in our tracks with those eyes so direct. Jill, those blues, and Lil those golds. If this is all we will have of you two, please know that we are thankful for what we have had. I think I speak for Thadd when I say, its all been one big winter "GULP" and we didn't even get brain freeze.