Nature's New Year

The Trees - Philip Larkin

The trees are coming into lea

Like something almost being said;

The recent bus relax and spread,

Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again

And we grow old? No, they die too,

Their yearly trick of looking new

Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh

In fullgrown thickness every May.

Last year is dead , they seem to say,

Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

I remember as a child I quite liked New Years Eve and for the majority of my life, I’ve fallen for the omnipresent pressure to start a new year with resolutions. To better myself, my home, my life.

However, as I’ve grown more and more into myself, I’ve come to denounce this idea of a new year beginning in the middle of Winter. How could a new year begin when all of nature is still resting. The trees have not grown new leafs and buds, bears are hibernating still and the kitchen gardens are largely barren and sleeping, gaining new strengths.

Much like nature, I feel the need for deep rest and nourishing my roots. Learning my mind and heart. Finding ways to fuel the fire in small and wonderful ways everyday has been an experience bordering on childlike ecstasy and wonder.

And perhaps, slowly over time, come Spring the little fire will have grown into a hearth alight with passion ready to flourish and ravage the soul like wildfire.