Nature’s “Repeated Refrains”

I experience life within the frame of a single day, every day. For me, that is living in the moment. My focus is here and now, not backward or forward. I have only this moment, this day.

Things that matter take time to root

and meaning takes time to blossom.

Mark Nepo

It is the way of nature, “her repeated refrains” as Rachel Carson calls them.

I, too, have seeds to sow. Some will not blossom in my lifetime, which is as it should be. Others like compassion and joy or love and kindness are perennials, and I will know their blossoms time and again.

Would that I walk in a field of blossoms every day….

Too many times I do not recognize fertile ground—I only see a fallow field—I miss the opportunity to plant the seed. On those days, I escape the experience of being alive; I am elsewhere, looking back to a moment already lived or anticipating a moment that might never be.

I try to remember that what is best in me takes time to take hold. Yet, a moment of kindness or thoughtfulness is a seed well planted. It is the stuff of perennials. I am here to sow for all the life that comes after me. It is essential that I am reverent in my work.

There is something infinitely healing in the repeated

refrains of nature—the assurance that

dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

Rachel Carson

Aim for Even posts offer equanimity a dose at a time. No day or dose is ever the same, even if the aim is. You may read about the origins of Aim for Even here or on this site’s About page.