Springing Back

It’s all happening! The days are getting longer, the daffodils are popping up, and the bluebells will be along shortly. No matter what else is going on in the world, nature has its own cycle. But our longing for rebirth and renewal is particularly strong this spring, for obvious reasons.


At this time of year we usually go for a couple of walks in our local woods, to look at flowers, dig up prehistoric shark’s teeth (there is a fossil bed where they can be found easily) and celebrate the end of winter. On our first visit a few days ago the daffodils were in bloom. We’ll go back in a few weeks to see the bluebells.

Because these woodland walks are a ritual we do every year, it reminds us of previous visits, and marks the passage of time from year to year and decade to decade, not just season to season. I’ve taken many pictures in these woods over the years, with different people, different cameras and different approaches.

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We have high hopes that the world will soon be able to go back to something like normal. But even if it does, the world will of course be different. The philosopher Heraclitus said that a man never steps in the same river twice. It’s the same with our walks: the same routine every year, but under different circumstances, amid constant change. We keep going back, but my family never walks in the same woods twice.

kirstin