After a long winter, Spring is a very welcome sight!  It eases its way in regardless of how impatient we are for the picture-perfect ideal.  The yard is now a patchy green, thanks to the gentle rain that fell yesterday and this morning.  But a closer look reveals the big game-changers–the buds.  The sap that starts flowing and feeds the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is the lifeblood of the trunks and branches that define the winter landscape.  The buds grow and swell as the nourishment flows.  What potential is held in the tiny bud!  What flower or leaf will unveil itself over the days and weeks to follow?  How in the world can such an intricate, colorful flower ‘be inside’ such a nondescript bud?  How does that big maple leaf form from such a diminutive capsule?

We often associate ‘budding’ with youth–a budding musician or artist or athlete–a child with great potential.  Extrapolating from that, we also associate Spring with youth–and as we age, we progress through Summer and Fall to the old-age Winter of our lives.  I propose we look at budding and the seasons with new eyes.  Budding means being in an early stage of development, and while that certainly pertains to childhood and new buds on a tree, it can also apply to anything new that a person is learning!  With less than a month since I started my blog, I am a budding blogger.  With the borrowed Canon SX130 camara that has settings I know little about, I am also a budding photographer.  And while a flower or leaf that develops from a bud is pretty close to perfect, I contend that the development of a new skill or the study of a new subject or the growth of a new practice need not be for the end product of perfection or even great accomplishment!  The act of budding and growing and doing the work intrinsic to development IS the reason for embarking on such a task.  It’s the journey, not the destination.  So let’s recycle the seasons of our lives–just as Mother Nature does.  What Spring thing do you have in your life right now?  Gosh, I love Spring!