Oh, spring, you’ve finally sprung here in Vermont. On Easter Sunday my husband and I spent the whole day outside. I was able to start a book I had been saving for April, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May.  I loved her book Wintering, so treating myself to this new book for April seemed like the best way to forge a pathway to my own spring enchantment.

In the book, May “invites the reader to come with her on a journey to reawaken our innate sense of wonder and awe (front book flap).”  The “restorative properties of the natural world” are explored through her version of the elements Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Through the wonders discovered on that journey, she comes to the conclusion that“We are better off staying soft. It gives us room to grow and absorb, to make space for all the other glorious notions that will keep coming at us across a lifetime (p. 209).” 

During this April week, I am enjoying my own exploration of the book, as well as thinking about all the enchantments in my life this spring. May defines enchantment as “Enchantment is small wonder magnified through meaning, fascination caught in the web of fable and memory (p.8).” That web, as she illustrates it with her own experiences, is what makes the book so compelling. This is not a recipe for awe-struck wonderment. She addresses “uncertainty,” something I have struggled with most of my life. I am not a “wait and see” kind of person. My own lack of patience and often anxiety-fueled limbo are painful states I still live in too often. But I am working on it, and this book is helping. 

What initially drew me to this book as one of my retirement reads is the focus on the restorative aspects of the natural world. During my years of work, nature was something I experienced as an event, often with blinders on, rather than the context for a state of being. Some of the wonderful things the retirement years allow for are discovery, relearning, unlearning, and appreciation of so many things we might have taken for granted during the years of our busy work lives.  This springtime, I am choosing to be soft, to embrace the wonder, and to explore my own enchantments in The Precious Days of April.

A Few of My Spring Enchantments

• April showers: the warm spring rain coaxing green and swelling buds

• Rising birdsong: the spring courting chorus of the titmice, phoebes, song sparrows, and cardinals

• Tulipa tarda: the greening and budding patches of our first islands of bulbs in the back border garden

• Constant wind: breezes, zephyrs, and gentle currents rustling the chimes that have returned to their hooks on the crab apple trees

• Patio table and chairs: the first summer furniture to “hit the deck” — home to the sun’s warmth, books, journals, pens, mugs of coffee in the morning and gin and tonics in the late afternoon

• Pansy planter: the large blue pottery bowl that is home to a half flat of yellow pansies, an annual bowl of spring sunshine

• Neighborhood walks: enjoying the progress of the greening lawns and the emerging purple crocuses edging the front walkway gardens

• Garden maps: planning with my husband where new seeds and bulbs will be placed this spring before the first date of safe sowing

• Vulture vortex: giant gliding scavengers swirling in the spring thermals rising higher and higher

• Street sounds: children’s laughter, mothers calling in the kids, bicycles whizzing by, soccer balls bouncing through backyards, and driveway conversations at dusk

  …and ALL THE TULIPS!

What are the things that are enchanting you this spring? Drop your enchantments in the Comments below.