Tethered

Native wildflowers like this bloodroot have begun blooming along woodland trails.

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I've been feeling a bit off this year. Struggling to find inspiration, to find cheer. Some personal losses and struggles have made it trickier to look forward with a positive attitude. And, although the winter wasn't exactly harsh this year, the limbo between winter and spring seems prolonged to me. But that's probably just my narrow point of view. 

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Tree buds leafing out at Forest Exploration Center.

Lately, I've been going out most days for short walks, quick stops at local nature spots, neighborhood parks, a few minutes along the Root River Parkway. In search of  signs of new life.

​Tree buds opening, green shoots coming up from the dirt, birds and other critters displaying nesting season energy. It's been helpful to push myself outdoors. Even for just a bit. To alter my perspective. 

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Yesterday was Earth Day. It started out gray, with a bit of rain. But the afternoon cleared up, and I took a walk at The Forest Exploration Center in Wauwatosa. There I did find signs of renewal.

​Lots of buds on tree branches beginning to leaf out. Wildflowers like native bloodroot blooming as I walked the trails. Green shoots of trillium popping up, jack-in-the-pulpit, too.  The woodlands should be alive with lots of blossoms soon.

Native bloodroot flowers rise up from the forest floor.

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Migrating birds have begun returning to the north. Yesterday I spotted a handsome yellow-bellied sapsucker, and a pair of dueling northern flickers vying for nesting area.

​Red-bellied woodpeckers, blue-jays, robins, and white-breasted nuthatches called from the tree canopy above me. Chipmunks chirped and scurried over fallen trees and mosses. Things are finally happening. Huzzah!

Northern flickers return to the forest for nesting season.

A yellow-bellied sapsucker searches tree bark for sap.

Northern flickers compete for nesting space in the forest.

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We are tethered to this beautiful earth. There are days when that awesome fact slips away from me. But there are  days when I am reminded, too. 

​During a walk around the pond at a local park, a hike through the forest, watching robins at the birdbath in my backyard, or spying last year's bird nest in a tree in the parking lot of the supermarket. The evidence is there, big and small. I just need to keep my eyes open.

A bird nest in a parking lot.