No Eggs Under My Leaves
Seriously, this could be me looking for spring!
Today is Easter Sunday for a lot of Christians, for some Christians it is not until April 27. But my neighborhood seemed to be celebrating today. Me, well, I raked leaves. No matter how many leaves I pulled away from fences or from under trees, or out of dead grass, there were no eggs hiding in them. I did get a few strange looks from the neighbors because I was raking while they were egg hunting in the name of Jesus. But, if you read my Happy Ostara post then you will know that we celebrated our fertility symbols on Thursday. So for me, today, was simply a beautiful Sunday.
This morning I looked out and saw that it was warmish (mid 40’s- yeah I know that isn’t warm for a lot of people, but seriously it is a matter of perspective) and sunny and clear and I found myself wishing that it were really spring, not just technically spring. I wanted to be outside enjoying the beautiful day. I wanted to dig in my garden and lite a fire in the fire pit. I wanted to be outside in shorts and a tank top drinking beer or coke and feeling the sun on my face. Yeah, spring, much less summer, is not here yet. But as I looked outside I realized that portions of my front and back yard have emerged from under the snow…and those portions are covered in leaves not raked up by my house mates last fall. So despite a vengeful desire to leave the heavy spring leaves to their duty, I decided to go out and rake.
Seriously though, I almost didn’t because a part of me wants to stick them with the reality of not taking care of their leaf raking duties last fall. I simply told them that I wanted them to rake before snow fall so in the spring we wouldnt have a back yard full of wet heavy leaves. My pleas fell on deaf ears because guess what my back yard is filled with, heavy wet leaves. Though currently you can only see about a third of them because the rest are still covered in snow.
Well, my desire to be outside and in my garden overcame my bitchiness and sense of entitlement. So I pulled out the rake and got to work. On one side I have a huge sense of accomplishment because my visible yard is now free of leaves! Of course 2/3 is not yet visible, but really that is just a technicality. It did make it seem more manageable to tackle this large project in this way. Beyond that though, I discovered that spring is in fact coming. I spotted some little plants starting to peak their little heads out of the dirt. This made me so happy to see! This never ending winter might actually be ending, warm weather isnt just a wicked rumor, the natural world is confirming it! Oh happy day!!!!
So now, my visible yard is leaf free. I honestly couldn’t have raked any more if I wanted too. I was pretty beat after I raked what I did. So instead of feeling like I have a job unfinished, I feel that I have a job well done….with the snow holding back the rest of the project ready to emerge at a later date. But, it was cathartic to be outside and working in the yard. I thought it was a great way to spend easter, even if no eggs were hiding under the leaves.
Some how I also felt as though I was urging spring to come by clearing away remnants of last year and stimulating the ground by raking. Its like when you give your head a vigorous scrub and you feel like you are encouraging your hair to grow with your massaging finger tips…well, that was me with my rake. Stimulating the hair follicles of yard, well, grass follicles. So today I did my part to encourage spring to come. Maybe she will listen.
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