This spring, nothing has gone as expected. The new normal is no longer new, and not yet normal. I am privileged and fortunate in many ways— I am safe and healthy, I am still employed and have meaningful work to do. I am grateful to have easy access to beautiful outdoor places where I can watch the grip of Winter relax as Spring eases into the forests and mountains.
Robert Frost knew this moment well. In his 1923 book New Hampshire, he described the astonishing, fleeting moments of early Spring in the White Mountains in a verse I know by heart.
Lafayette brook runs down from a spring on the side of Mt. Lafayette in the town of Franconia, where Frost and his family lived. The ice is gone from the brook in the valley where I paused to watch it, But up on Mt Lafayette there are still pockets of ice to be found on the foot packed trails and in shaded gullies.