We say that flowers return every spring, but that is a lie. It is true that the world is renewed. It is also true that that renewal comes at a price, for even if the flower grows from an ancient vine, the flowers of spring are themselves new to the world, untried and untested.
The flower that wilted last year is gone. Petals once fallen are fallen forever. Flowers do not return in the spring, rather they are replaced. It is in this difference between returned and replaced that the price of renewal is paid.
And as it is for spring flowers, so it is for us.
~ Daniel Abraham
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
– Ecclesiastes 3:1 –
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SEE YOU IN THE SPRING
Lyrics:
Cold Chicago nights
Chains on tires
You’re digging out snow
That wind, it just ain’t right
I made up my mind
I’m heading home
Well babe, why can’t you give it time?
I’ll keep you warm at night
This town is all I know
And I can see you in my life
Stay inside
(I can’t go outside)
Just please don’t go
(So I gotta go)
‘Cause baby your winter is nothing but prison
It drives me away
And maybe come summer then we’ll be together
Our time will come again
Til then I’ll see you in the spring
So don’t throw it all away
Throw it all away
The end of spring and June arrives
Won’t you take a flight?
Come down to San Antone
All that heat feels like I’m on fire
Oh no it just ain’t right
(It’s just not right, it’s just not right)
It makes me sweat at night
(To be so alone)
I’d rather be alone
Cuz baby your summer is nothing but prison
It drives me away
And maybe come winter we can’t be together
But love will come again
Til then I’ll see you in the spring
So don’t throw it all away
Throw it all away
You know I live just to see your eyes
I’ll meet you half way
(It makes me fall when for me you’ll find a way)
I’ll meet you half way by the runaway sign
(I’ll find you baby)
‘Cause baby your winter is nothing but prison
It drives me away
And maybe come summer we can’t be together
Our time will come again
When I’ll see you in the spring
So don’t throw it all away
Don’t throw it all away
Don’t throw it all away
Throw it all away
Then again, everything that fades, dies, and is eventually reborn is reconstituted from the same basic stock of matter that earth consists of. Everything is one, and we are all stardust. A baby may be brand new, as are the petals on the first crocus in spring, but within the structure of both there is the memory of all that has gone before. Seasons don’t end and begin–they evolve one into the other in an eternal continuum. Or not, what do I know?
The vine is ancient; the petals are new. Age-old bones, brand new flesh. As you say, the memory of what has gone before. (Re)birth and death are part and parcel to the continuum. Nature evolves much more gracefully than do its inhabitants, I think.
Maybe part of us inhabitants not evolving as gracefully as nature is…we fight it – want a different outcome… I speak for myself as I point with my own two hands at myself. ; ) XOXO
I agree. There is something… inhuman… about “letting nature take its course.”
You might say Free Will is the ‘wild’ in us; we use it to tame.
As a species, humans aren’t terribly evolved. But as individuals… We’ve come a long way, baby.
xo