May 16th, 2018
I like to walk Shocky just as the sun is coming up. As I walked with her out of our front door, I could see my breath in the cold air. Yeah, I know it’s half way through the month of May already. However, we live in a climate where winter leaves grudgingly, and it is always a good idea to have a sweater handy. Spring is here, but it comes reluctantly. The surest sign that the seasons have changed is the sound of lawnmowers in the distance. Also, motorcycles and tulips suddenly arrive on the scene.
I enjoy this particular time of the year because it is dynamic. The leaves on the trees are still budding. The crab apples and the dogwoods are just getting their blossoms. All things are becoming alive. Nothing is complete. Each morning of each day the landscape looks slightly different. Nature is giving birth. It is almost like Eden.
Sadly, not everything is vibrant. There are still bare trees in the woods. They will stay that way. The emerald ash borer came through this country during the last couple years, and all the ashes are dead, hundreds of them. Their skeletal remains are visible on the horizon. Already, other species of trees are taking their places. Maples, cottonwoods, and walnuts are slowly filling in the spaces that are now bare. In a five or ten years, it will be impossible to tell where all the ash trees were. For now, they stand leafless and naked and dead.
As Shocky and I walked back east toward our house, I saw the sunlight flash through the branches of a red maple. The wind blew the tiny leaves on the tree branches, and the light made the tree seem to be aflame. I stopped to look at it for a moment, and savor its beauty.
I love spring.
Frank is Emptiness 