Spring Re-Vision by Laurie Calkhoven

There is a hard truth to be told: before

spring becomes beautiful, it is plug

ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I 

have walked in the early spring

through fields that will suck your boots

off, a world so wet and woeful it makes

you yearn for the return of ice. But in

that muddy mess, the conditions for

rebirth are being created.

I recently came across that quote by a man named Parker Palmer. If Google is to be trusted, he is the founder of the Center for Courage and Renewal in Seattle, which sounds like a wonderful place.

Depending on where you live in the world, that quote might be more appropriate for March than April, but I read it and immediately thought – what a great metaphor for revision!

Our drafts can be plug ugly. They can make us feel wet and woeful, like trying to improve them is like sinking into mud. But in those muddy messes of words and paragraphs and pages, the conditions for rebirth, for re-vision, were created. We have to trust that the seeds are there, ready to be nurtured so that they can be reborn.