Valentine Flowers and ER 33

Yesterday was Valentine's Day. I got a bouquet of Tulips from David and Thom, which was a surprise and very welcome. We had the first blizzard of the year and the flowers were wonderful against the backdrop of howling wind and snow. They were a remembrance of Spring. I find it hard to think of the coming Spring this time of year. Besides, it is wishing time away not to embrace the present. So instead I look back fondly on other Eastport Springs when the flowers come up on their own and the trees blossom so abundantly their aroma fills the town. These red tulips in such contrast to the whiteness of the snow outside were a pointed reminder of the difference between the seasons here. It must be very boring to have the seasons change so little as they do in some places in the country and the world. I love the rythmn of extreme change within a predictable cycle.

Familiarity and reliability are the hallmark of the seasons. The arrival of the tulips was a surprise beat, out of sync, an antidote to complacency. Their blazing color stirred me out of my tendancy to believe the present will last forever. They reach out from the past and the future to remind me that, for better or worse, nothing stays the same. They are a gift from the summer in the middle of the cold.