“It Came Just the Same”

Sometimes a simple stroll is enough to remind us that even a global pandemic will not stop spring from coming.  I’m reminded of the following lines from Dr. Seuss’s, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”

“Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

Even though our day to day lives have been significantly impacted, Mother Nature has continued to awaken from her long winter slumber to decorate our gardens with purple crocuses, daffodils the colour of sunshine and bright crimson tulips. The newly green lawns, although currently sprinkled (and in some cases flooded) with multi-headed dandelions, are growing and tempting us to dust off the lawn mower for our inaugural first trim of the season.  Wildlife is waking up from their dens of hibernation or returning from their southern winter homes.   With the return of the birds comes the building of their spring homes in anticipation for welcoming new life.

Today as I ventured outside I noticed not one, but two nests, expertly crafted with a variety of materials, including, if you can believe it, some Scotch Tape.  One nest is perching on our front porch, precariously situated on the back of one of our chairs, whereas the other one is nestled deep into the shrubbery at the side of the house.  Both are perfectly crafted bowl shapes with a perfect circular formation.  The one in the shrubs has been expertly reinforced with ring of mud for additional strength.

Finding the nests was a thrill, but the evidence that life is continuing is the fact that both nests are now filled with four eggs that are a brilliant Robin’s Egg blue.  We’ll watch in wonder over the next few weeks as the mother birds provide warm and protection for her eggs in the hopes that they will survive long enough to both hatch and then to eventually take flight.

The gift of our current situation is that I now have the time to observe this remarkable annual ritual more closely because it is “coming just the same”!

What have you had the time to notice this spring, that maybe you haven’t in the past?

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