While walking in the woods today, I heard the trees speaking to one another. It’s a creaking, cracking, clicking kind of sound that could easily be dismissed. If you just stand still for half a minute, they will begin talking. Or maybe they never stop talking, but it takes us half a minute to adjust to their voices. As I said, the sound could easily be dismissed.
It comes from the very top of the tree cover. With spring here, they have much to talk
about, and their words are different than they were in the winter. In the winter, it was a harsh cracking and
groaning kind of sound, a sound of difficulty.
But now in the spring, the clicks and snaps are quick and lively. It almost feels like an electrical wave. Perhaps it is. There is so much work to be done and so many
creatures relying on them!
 |
| Slowly rolling along. |
The wind joined in, and it was a welcome sound since he
hasn’t participated that way in a while.
In the winter he howls and shrieks and sometimes cries. But in the spring, the small new leaves of
the maple trees rustle frantically and happily in the wind, carrying his
message around the forest. When all of
the leaves have arrived, he will sound like a symphony.
All around, the buzzes of new insects and tweets of crazily
busy birds could be heard. It makes me
blush to say, but it is a veritable celebration of sex as everywhere the
riotous mating calls could be heard. The
spring peepers (frogs) will join in during the night along with the other night
creatures. Day and night, it’s a
celebration of the continuity of life.
It’s happening all around us, right in front of us. It’s still rated “G,” though, and you don’t
need to cover the children’s eyes or ears.
It’s the unfolding of life, and we’re all a part of it.
And it’s not separate things. It’s just one big giant thing that continues
to roll on and on, slowly but surely.
Life was created once only, and that was a very long time ago and there’s
no need to argue about how it happened. Let
us simply rejoice that it did
happen. All the rest of us--the animals,
people, plants, etc.,--all we do is continue it. We don’t create it. We continue it. Here’s to riding on the train for a while!
