The seasons

I rarely visited the woods this winter. The snow was too deep, and who around these parts even had time to go for a leisurely stroll through the trees? There was too much work to do up here around the residential area----path shoveling, feeding, plowing and then doing it all over again.

During what little spring we had, I was fortunate to take several walks through our wooded areas. One time I even scattered wildflower seed with hopes of continued discoveries of fragile little flowers rearing their heads next to some of Bill's tree seedlings or along the pathways we normally travel.

It's ten days from summer (on the calendar, that is). I don't often go to the woods. The grass is too deep and too wet. Bill went out to check his trees this week and came back with pant legs soaked to the crotch. I went far enough one day to give my jeans a good dousing.

Summer is when the grass takes off, growing in rapid spurts so high and so thick one has difficulty walking through its jungly mass on a dry day. This glut of green should be great for the farm animals who've been munching on dry hay all winter. At least, that's the way it seems.

For horses, however, that grass is poison. So, each year we're reminded of the line from the ancient mariner's poem about water everywhere but not a drop to drink. The green sea in June fields presents the same problem. Oh, those horses can go out there for about twenty minutes, but leave them there any longer and they're likely not to walk back.

Horses' tummies cannot take rich, green June grass, especially when it's been rained on for days. Ingesting too much causes fatal colic or painful founder where the hooves become so tender, the poor animal would rather lie down than move. One must remain on guard for such possibilities and keep the horses away from that grass.

So, here we are, close to the summer season, and we deal with just as many nature-related problems as we encountered during the past hated winter---just problems of a different nature.

The seasons on the calendar bring forth a host of new challenges, just as do the seasons of life. As we move toward another season, which someone way back when decided to call "summer," we continue to keep our hearts filled with hope and our minds armed for the changes and challenges that summer brings----rich green grass, heat, dry ground, bugs, etc.

By comparison, we must remain keenly aware that like winter, spring, summer and fall, the seasons of life bring with forth challenges: heart-ache, a need to adjust and the knowledge that this life on earth is filled with fluidity, always keeping us offguard, always reminding us that we're not at the controls.

We do the best we can to prepare ourselves for being thrust into whatever gets flung our way, but we know that often we are powerless to alter a plan much larger than anything we can conceive. How we face that fact can make all the difference.

We may not be able to change the facts of the situations, but through keen observation we can prepare ourselves to face each seasonal challenge with our best foot forward and continue to learn about the complexities of this thing called life.

I've thought about that a lot this week.