Revel in the Little Passings & Let Your Life Burst Forth

Spring is the season in which we get to observe most obviously the miracle of life. Every day in May, when I walk outside, there is some more new life to experience. If I sat still long enough, I suspect I could see the lady slipper’s grow and bloom, and the star flowers, and the bluets, and the lilacs. Everything happens so fast. Some years, the students in our M.Ed. and Humane Education Certificate Programs at the Institute for Humane Education come for their week-long residency in May. I always remind them during Monday’s outdoor activity at our beautiful facility in coastal Maine to pay close attention to a few spots on the property. I let them know that they will be completely transformed by Friday. It is rare that we get to witness the unfolding of so much life so quickly.

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro wrote this poem about life and death:

Life and death,
a twisted vine sharing a single root

A water bright green
stretching to top a twisted yellow
only to wither itself
as another green unfolds overhead.

One leaf atop another
yet under the next,
a vibrant tapestry of arcs and falls
all in the act of becoming.

Death is the passing of life
And life is the stringing together of so many little passings.

Take some time this spring to go outdoors and witness the stringing together of so many little passings. Know that your life, too, is one of these little passings, so precious and fleeting, so deserving of care and celebration and love and joy. Know that your brief life has the power to contribute, to nurture the unfolding of what is good and kind and positive. Revel in this spring and let this season burst you forth in full expression of your life.

Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm

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