Time

 This spring I was disappointed that the four clematis vines I planted a year ago were not blooming as much as I'd hoped. Two of them had a few short-lived purple flowers, but the other two seemed to be putting all their energy into vines. Until last week, the whole entrance area on the south side of my place was covered with lush vines. It was beautiful, but I kept telling them silently that I wished they'd made more blooms. Then suddenly everything was covered in white, and now there are thousands of blooms. I'd forgotten that two of the vines were fall-blooming! And they are doing themselves proud.

It's made me think about timing. There are so many subtle influences in the world that nudge us one way or another. Why some clematis vines know to flower in the spring, and others in the fall is a mystery to me, though I'm sure scientists have an answer. We can assume that earthly influences like warmer temperatures spur perennial plants to begin growing again. The same thing might be true of trees' new growth in the spring. But how do the hummingbirds know when to start their fall migration, or all the other birds who migrate? Not just colder temperatures, for this begins in the warmer season. How does the bear know when to crawl into it's den for the winter? Or the groundhog to go underground? What spurs squirrels to bury some of the nuts they find, rather than eating them right then? 

I suspect all of us living things are influenced by environmental cues. We may not consciously notice them, but unconsciously we are patterned and programmed by them. In current human life, we do much to organize and orchestrate our timing. The clock figures large in our days. We set times for meetings, for other work, for eating, for relaxing, for sleeping. So we are perhaps not as open to the environmental influences that are affecting the other living inhabitants on earth. But just the same, those influences have an impact on us. For example, my to-do list. Sometimes items remain on this list for weeks, even months. And then suddenly I find the interest and energy to tackle them. I would guess that some influence or other made this happen. Last week I finally got motivated to clean out my garage, and it was fun! Not a chore at all. Then I found that other people cleaned out their garages here at Prairie Hill last week. Is this just coincidence, I wonder?

There's something related to this whole subject in the last blog post, where I shared with you the notes from an unknown source. Near the end, it mentioned how living creatures are attuned to each other with subtle forms of communication, and that humans have lost much of that skill. When the universe is communicating with us, we may be too focused on our schedules and our plans, our notions of success and failure, our drive to get things done, to notice these subtle nudgings. I can't help but wonder if our lives might work better, tasks go smoother, if we found ways to open ourselves, being more attuned to the wider world around us. Our culture doesn't encourage this. But what the heck, things in many ways are going pretty badly. Why not try it!