Renewal

I often travel in the spring to see family and friends. The season’s spirit of renewal pulls me—I drop by an old friend’s house after years of being away; her hug is the same—bountiful and real. I take in the synchronicity of quick meetings, long dinners, and reel in the beauty of the world renewing itself one more time.

This season also contains a memory of difficult times when someone promised, “This too shall pass.” It all does—the season, the insights, the hard times, the conversations—like the warm sunlight between rain clouds. Yet it all comes back in new forms…the ongoing seasonal cycle, an inspired conversation, inevitable challenges, different sorts of connection. These three haiku speak of renewal during one particular trip.

red-winged blackbirds perched / along the fenceline—snowy / peaks on horizon

white heron framed in / blackness of round drainpipe—the / yin yang of my thoughts

cold chases warmth as / graywhite clouds shadow blooming / hills—white and pink buds