Ugliness begets beauty
Skunk cabbage smells like its name, but has a deep purple spotted leaf-like flower and gives rise to something that looks like Romaine lettuce--some of the first greens of the spring in damp areas. Spring is here.
Easter, Passover and Ramadan are all celebrated these weeks. The holy season reminds us of death and new life, loss and promise.
As I have written in these pages before about the long year of the COVID pandemic. But we do have promises of hope despite the current rise in infections, the COVID mutations, and the slowness of vaccine rollout in some countries.
It has been a colder spring than usual here in Rhode Island, but in addition to the appearance of skunk cabbage, tiny green leaves and buds are showing on some trees and bushes, and our bird friends are returning to the bay. We have seen cormorants, an egret blue herons and the osprey are fishing and carrying twigs to spruce up their nests. Birds have returned to three of the four nests we monitor for Audubon. The swan pair who live in the estuary are feathering their nest. They have fostered no young during the three years that we have lived here. But even they have hope. On our Easter morning walk in a state park that borders the bay yielded many gifts: an Eagle flew overhead, the loons are changing from gray into their black and white breeding colors, the kingfishers twittered and flew, red-breasted mergansers in full breeding colors with their punk-like crests dove for fish. A seal sunned on a distant rock and we caught a glimpse of a fox carrying away some furry bounty--a muskrat?.
Join me in celebrating nature's inevitable cycle and the promise of resiliency. I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Public Health Out Loud, a Rhode Island podcast about my new book. COVID Chronicles: Stories of Resiliency from Essential workers
The writing and interviewing for the book was my way of finding hope and staying sane during these difficult times. Be well and wishing you a happy spring, Easter, Passover, Ramadan or whatever promise of life you celebrate.
Photo credit: Reed Pike, 2021, Goddard State Park