The Heat of Living Things

As the snow was melting, i watched patches of bare earth come to light. A circle of ground around a tree indicates to me that it's sugaring season--the sap is flowing in the maple trees.

But this year i noticed, bare spots around plants in the garden. Wow! Plants must exude some small amount of heat? I can imagine that they are "thirsty" when they wake up from their l-o-n-g winter's sleep, so melted snow would "taste" delicious.

Must be that mysterious "life force." We ourselves require "fire" (heat) to bind our own earth, water, and wind together. When the "fire" leaves, the other "elements" fall apart.

Now winter is falling apart as patches of snow melt into the earth.

The Life Force of Snowdrops

Snowdrops are blooming! Wow. March 8th does feel early, but then, the snow has mostly melted, and there's no snow forecast for the rest of the month. It seems winter is over. The harbingers of spring are here, two weeks before the official starting date.

The ground is still frozen. Just imagine the strength in those little green leaves as they lift the weight of several inches of frozen soil to emerge into warm sunlight and chill air.

This amazing life force binds my very own earth, water, and wind together into the person I call "me." Small children have so much life force, they run in circles with it. Old people limp along with it. Then it mysteriously disappears, and we grieve its loss.

The life force is arriving now, day by day, sweeping us along with it, and reminding us of our interconnectedness with all of life.