The return of color: Spring comes around cautiously in Central Oregon. I won't see any flowers blooming nearby until April. Once the snow melts there is a dusty, dry, wintering quality to the landscape, with ponderosa pines being the only relief from hues of tan and medium brown. And then, all at once, the bluebirds return, so vivid it makes me realize the sky is barely blue at all. Wax current bushes have exploded into poofs of spring green. Instant optimism.
Slime mold: If, like me, you have not spent any time learning about slime mold, let me encourage you to scroll through this incredible gallery of photographs. Follow the #slimemold hashtag on social media for a daily dose of tiny beautiful things growing on the backs of leaves, in the nooks of bark, and other natural hiding places.
Humidity: I live in a high desert that is currently in a drought, so it's been real dry and dusty. The junipers that surround my house are covered with tiny brown cones, bursting with pollen. The dry skin, sinus pressure, itchy eyes, and scratchy throat were finally relieved by a trip to drizzly Washington. Every morning, I ran up and down a little mountain, oggling the lichen and moss, the vivid greens, soaking my shoes and filling my cells with moisture.
Paddling: We went to a small lake a short drive from my father's house so that I could test drive my packraft. As my dad glided across the lake in his kayak with a few paddle strokes, I paddled and paddled and couldn't keep up. My boat was perhaps not built for speed, but floating, investigating eagle nests, and being suspended in a body of water is it's own kind of meditation.
Books: In what feels like a record, I read three really good books last month (the record not the number of books, but the fact of enjoying them all). Coincidentally, they all happen to be set in different versions of the future. The Anomaly begins with a scene so riveting I was instantly hooked. It doesn't go where I thought it would, but I enjoyed the journey. The Echo Wife is incredibly creepy and addictive. I was almost put off by the futuro-religious bits of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, but I persevered and in the end they have nothing to do with what I perceive as the gift of this book, which is delivered by a curious and friendly robot. "Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is." Why is that something I needed to be reminded of? I don't know, but it has lifted a weight I didn't fully realize I was carrying.
Lisa's horoscopes for April are upbeat and exciting! Check them out here. I added a tiny shop to my website with a selection of tiny drawings. I have dozens of drawings available, only a handful are listed. Let me know if you have always wanted one and don't see it.
