"I will wax romantic about spring and its splendors in a moment, but first 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 love the fact that the word "humus"-the decayed vegetable matter that
feeds the roots of plants-comes from the same word root that gives rise to the
word "humility." It is a blessed etymology. It helps me understand that the
humiliating events of life, the events that leave "mud on my face" or that "make
my name mud," may create the fertile soil in which something new can
grow."
Parker Palmer shares more in this reflective piece on the arrival of Spring."
