cf. earth girls

Flowers are easy. I suspect they trigger the same reward center in the brain that Platek and Singh uncovered in their waist-to-hip-ratio study. It’s hard to deny they’re sexy. With petals unfurled and stamen at the ready they’re also undeniably fecund -- fecund being one of those reproductive terms that is not the least bit sexy.

I try to avoid shooting them for same reason I don’t shoot and post naked people.

But when they spread wide just outside your kitchen window in the dawn and the dew, you kind of feel like you have to pay them the courtesy of your attention.

emptying the cup

The long tail stretch of the Chicago winter hooks deep into the days of March and April that most folks know as Spring, and empties every last reserve of hope that the world might turn green again.

These days remind me of the teacup koan; of the emptying:

Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen.

Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring.

The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!"

"Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?"

Yes, Winter: We are empty now.

Please: May we have some Spring?

belated haymaking

Video: Jonathon Coulton sings First of May First of May / Outdoor F*ing Starts Today
A bit belated, but since I failed to get my super serious Haymarket post together in time, I thought I’d throw in my little bit late homage to May Day -- courtesy of Mr. Jonathon Coulton.

Not really safe for work, but what do you care? It’s Sunday.

And it's Spring.

&p.s. if you prefer earnest here's 2006's May Day recycled »

green-up

Green-up: When the snow melts and new grass sprouts.

From Saturday's NYTimes piece Anger Over Culling of Yellowstone’s Bison.

The Maya too, both ancient and new, speak of this thing called "greening". It describes something like sap flow -- a vitality that moves through all things. The Chinese would probably call it Chi.

It's something very much like Spring.

Wait!
thou Maker, thou Modeler,
look at us, listen to us,
don’t let us fall, don’t leave us aside,
thou god in the sky, heart of Earth,
give us our sign, our word,
as long as there is day, as long as there is light.
When it come to the sowing, the dawning,
Will it be a greening road, a greening path?

Give us a steady light, a level place,
A good light, a good place,
A good life and beginning.
Give us all of this, thou Hurricane,
Bearer, Begetter,
Grandmother of Day, Grandmother of Light,
When it comes to the sowing, the dawning.

—From the Popul Vuh

that much closer to naked

There's something about the hint of Spring that makes you realize you've been wearing way too many clothes for way too long. Something about the way your muscles yield, your shoulders give; something about the way you receive the day when you step out into it, your lungs relaxing, breathing deep.

The outside air is no longer your adversary.

Together you move optimistically towards a truce.

something's happening here

Spring. She's such a tease.