They're here! After last week's snow and bitter winds, I was afraid it would be another month until I saw them but, low and behold, they're here. And what better time than on Easter Sunday to look out of the window, looking to see which little bird was singing so sweetly right beside my bedroom, to be greeted by the first glimpses of green. The little spindly tree I see each morning when I sit down at my desk has its first fat buds poking out from the branches. The little bird that was serenading me was a tiny, female cardinal and it was her beautiful red color that brought out the green of the tiny buds more clearly for me to see.
It doesn't matter that I get to see green all winter long compliments of the giant pines that surround my apartment building - not that I'm discounting pine trees. On the contrary, I do love them. However, it isn't really spring until the rest of the trees start to produce those sweet little buds and the first tiny shoots of the daffodils and crocus start to poke up through the ground. Living on the top floor, it is the tree I see first. I took it as a message from Spirit that it's blooming was announced by a cardinal, a bird often spiritually associated with the church. Some also believe that when you see a cardinal, an angel is near, or the spirit of a loved one. Once again, the symbolism of it all to appear on Easter Sunday is quite a wonderful message to receive.
Nature is full of wonderful signs and symbols if we just take the time to see them. Having been stuck inside for so much of the last year, my usual jaunts out and about in nature were few and far between. To make up for it I have been spending more time at the window looking to see what my animal and plant neighbors have been up to and doing more research online. It has been like taking a college level course in life. Now that things are starting to ease up, the time is coming soon when I will be able to get back out there and see the natural world I love so much up close and personal.
Today, even if it's just for a few minutes, take some time to really look outside at the natural world around you. Who knows what messages may be waiting there for you, too?
And so it is.
