What comes back. What we let back in. The long slow work of re-entering our own lives.

Return

A spring orbit. Something is loosening. This week we turn toward what is coming back, and what we are finally ready to let come back.

Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.
Little rivulets of water changed
their singing accents. Tendernesses,

hesitantly, reach toward the earth
from space, and country lanes are showing
these unexpected subtle risings
that find expression in the empty trees 

Early Spring

Harshness vanished. A sudden softness
has replaced the meadows' wintry grey.

The Thaw

Write a small blessing for the first warm day.

After everything I’ve been through,
I’m grateful I’m still alive.
My heart hasn’t hardened
like those who hurt me and ran.
Even though pain stays with me most days,
I still find moments of joy
in newly bloomed flowers,
in feeding street cats,
in the small kindness
in someone’s behavior.
I can still see the lights,
even if my eyesight has changed
because of the dark.