Stress Relief

This week has been a weird one all around. It is a week that felt as long as a month. School is closed and all of my students have to go online to learn. This is especially difficult for my students because, even though we have been online before, they do not speak English very well and things many of us understand instinctively how to do, they do not, and they don't even know the words to explain to me what they don't understand.

So, between worry for them, and concern about my family and friends, and uncertainty about the world, it was stressful all around. I am sure many of you felt the same.

I read that nature, being out in it, or even merely looking at pictures of it, can relieve stress. For me, this is true.

A few weeks ago, I bought a little two foot tall camellia. One of the things I loved about the house I moved from was my peppermint striped camellias. The plants I had there were well over eight feet tall and sadly were razed with every other piece of greenery when I left. When I saw this happy little plant, I just had to buy it!

Early yesterday morning, when I got up to let out the dogs, I caught sight of the light outside and I ran out to take pictures. It had just rained and the sun was coming out from behind clouds and everything just looked so magical! The Japanese maple seemed to have put on leaves over night.

The light was just so and I could see pine pollen sparkling down like a fine mist. I am not a fan of pine pollen, but it was at that moment truly beautiful.

Azaleas and irises and lilies are waking up.

And of course forsythia, whose name, I was told, means anticipation. He is always the first harbinger of spring in my mind.  I have sometimes seen his blooms in the dreariest of times, and taken heart at his promise of sunnier days to come.