Mixed bag

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My daughters and I have been making trips, roughly a week apart, to a local preserve to watch its progress as spring unfolds. The gallery above shows some of the sights.

And really, it’s quite early yet. May is the time when ferns unfurl, wildflowers and warblers run riot, and leaves pop. But it feels amazing to be in the woods in these early days as ever-so-slightly, the green begins to make its inroads against the brown, gray and white of winter.

Yesterday I noticed something I didn’t photograph that was equally cheering: many people, out and about. Both in the woods, and in the car on the way home, I thought about the strangely mixed bag of stayhomesavelivessocialdistancingflattenthecurve during a pandemic…

One the one hand:

• economic loss
• social isolation
• severe illness, and death
• children missing school lunches, friends, stability, routine
• family tensions inflamed in close quarters
• anxiety
• too little toilet paper
• too many sweets

But on the other hand:

• dogs getting walked more
• people doing things together more
• a man and a young girl riding a tandem
• parents and young children walking the trails
• temporary technological substitutes for community & education
• books getting read
• time

I don’t want to do this forever. But for now, I can see some good things happening, even in the midst of crisis. Spring is unfurling in the woods, and looking around, it appears that perhaps a good many “Someday when I have time, I will _____” ideas are unfurling as well. Six feet apart is not that far.

I say this without minimizing the bad, but with thankfulness for the good that exists alongside it.