I am Tabula Rasa...at least today.

Keira and I have been enjoying some pleasant afternoon walks this week. For the past three days we have been accompanied by gaggles of Canadian geese. On the first day I thought to myself: "Self, are those silly birds are just waiting until NOW to fly away!?!" On the second day I thought "...perhaps they came north only to find it was still winter and are now flying back?" Today I am hoping that they must portend the coming of spring! Even the optimistic chickadees are agreeing with me as they sang cheerful songs of "Springs Here" most of the day.

I took the photo below, yesterday afternoon, when the afternoon light was at its warmest. Flowers on my window sill are an indulgence that I have been quite enjoying the past few weeks. Their cheer takes away some of the gloom of -30 C weather.

To my own critical eye, the broken petal in front and the spot on the petal to the right rear bother me. But honestly; nothing in nature is perfect. That is why it is. Perfect.

Their cheer also reminds me of the joyfulness which is an ever present, yet under recognized, component of the human condition. Over the last few days I have been eye-deep in literature on the weird and complicated ways in which mothers and babies can die in pregnancy. It is very heavy material to cover and comes with a learning curve which really has nothing curvy about it (really, why don't we just call it a learning-ladder? You know, straight up!). Surprisingly though, in the midst of the "nobody makes it alive out of pregnancy" content, something as simple as these flowers brings me joy. Huge joy! My personality is such that I naturally meditate on the serious and grave. I am a worrier and a stresser - yet my innate human must be an optimist because these random imperfectly perfect 'things' bring a profoundly simple, yet pure joy. I wonder then, is it my soul which smiles when my brain ponders?