Embracing Change: Lessons from Spring’s Renewal
As a hiker and outdoor enthusiast, Spring is one of my favorite seasons. I spend a lot of time outdoors, but it seems like the most exciting time of the year is when everything is coming back to life. The scent of flowers and leaves fills the air, and animals come out to stretch their limbs after their dormant months. Indeed, there are some animals, like the elusive Gila Monster, that I rarely get to see outside of spring.
I look back fondly to all the years where I spotted leaves first starting to bud on trees. The air is still relatively cold with winter’s touch, but the leaves are always a sign that winter’s time is closing. Where naked trees once stood silent, birds come and fill them with noise. It’s as if nature itself is yawning and stretching its arms out.
One of the coolest aspects of spring, at least where I live, is the snow melt. If the high mountains get enough snow over the winter, it starts to melt during the spring. As a result, many of the dry washes that run through the desert come alive with water. Some years they run for months, others for only a few days. You never know how much water will come down or when it will come. It adds to the magic of the season.
One year, my wife and I took advantage of the spring melt by going on a hike with our dog up a red rock canyon. We hiked a few miles in before the canyon got so narrow that we had to plunge our feet into the icy water and walk through it. I remember its coolness, the grit of the rocks we used to stabilize ourselves, and the scent of fresh foliage around us.
At one point, the water scared our dog, and she refused to come forward. My wife and I looked back at her and gave her some encouragement. She yipped and cowered, but eventually found the courage to jump into the water. She quickly found that she didn’t mind the water, and started playing in it. Before long, she looked much more comfortable in the water than we did.
Looking back now, I realize that my dog’s actions are connected to spring. Just like my dog moved forward courageously, so too does the spring. It melts the snow and gently shakes the earth back to consciousness. It moves forward in its time, knowing that summer comes, yet it doesn’t look back. Instead, it bravely marches forward.
Maybe we should be more like spring, moving forward and changing the world. Things might not always work out the way we hope; sometimes winter gives us too much snow, and we end up accidently flooding the riverbeds of our lives. Still, it’s natural. It’s a reset. Maybe if we acknowledge where we are, then be who we are, things will reset, and our lives will improve.
