Friday Ramble Before Beltane (May Day)

Saturday is the eve of Beltane (or May Day) in the northern hemisphere, the eve of Samhain in lands below the equator. As we in northern lands drift from winter into springtime, our kindred in the south are moving from summer into autumn. 

It has been a long winter here in the eastern Ontario highlands, and it will be another week until colonies of bloodroot are up and blooming in our forest, but early specimens lift their gold and white heads in protected nooks here and there in the woods.  In other years, wild yellow orchids were in bloom right about now, but it will be a while before they put in an appearance, soon to be followed by trout lilies, columbines and hepatica.

Bloodroot flowers are simply breathtaking, and the shy white blooms with their golden centers are dear to my heart, something of a seasonal marker. Encountering this one glowing softly in its flickering, stone-warmed alcove, I felt like kneeling and kissing the good dark earth where the flower made its home—it was that perfect. Ignoring my protesting knees, down I went in the dead leaves and stayed there for quite a while, nose to nose with the little wonder and happy as one elderly clam can be. Getting up again was quite an undertaking.

The interval was one of the wild epiphanies I love so much, especially in springtime when the north woods are just coming to life.  Call it a moment of kensho, one of those fleeting intervals of quiet knowing and connection that I like to call "aha" moments. Forget the fancy stuff - this is the ground of my being. As long as I can spend time with trees and rocks and wildflowers, I can handle the big health "stuff", most of the time anyway. Add lakes, loons, cormorants, herons and sunsets to the equation, please. Also geese, trumpeter swans and cranes.

May there be light and blooming in your own precious life this Beltane, may there be warmth in your corner of the great wide world. May all good things come to you at this turning in the Great Round of space and time.