Spring is Just Around the Corner...

Spring is just around the corner. The bitter winds of winter will soon cease to blow. And what a long, bleak winter it has been. Walked down to the woods on a beautiful day to visit the Free Farm for a seed-swapping event. Down the street and through the woods I went, wearing a spring skirt I had sewn from a bed sheet and embroidered with animals. I carried with me a booklet of envelopes filled with seeds to trade that I had saved for a few years. I was incredibly nervous as I walked up to the building. I gathered up my courage and went inside. Taking in the scene I saw local farmers and gardeners talking about their seeds. I approached a young man with long hair. “Would you like any of my seeds?” I asked and showed him the book. “Oh, wow, what a creative idea for seed storage!” he said and helped himself to some butternut squash seeds. I placed them in a little brown bag printed with fairies and took a few seeds for myself. I wandered around the other booths, sampling elderberry tea and cookies, discussing winter gardening techniques and admiring the local farmer's products. There were tinctures of herbs, little glass jars of elderberry syrups, kombucha starter sets and seeds of every variety all free for the taking.

 

I had come prepared with my book of seeds, a book filled with envelopes of seeds I had saved. I walked up to some of the people there and asked if they wanted to trade. I ended up with a wide variety of seeds, syrups and tinctures... A robust and good-looking farmer addressed the crowd. “Thank you all for joining us here today to celebrate the first stirrings of spring. Now, this is completely optional, but I would like us all to come together and put our arms around each other in a circle...” I turned to the girl next to me “Are you sure you’re all right with this?” I asked “I’ve been under the impression that nobody wants me anywhere near them for the past two years...” She smiled and said, “Of course it’s ok!” then put her arm around me and rubbed me back kindly. Next, we crouched to the ground to get in touch with our inner seeds before springing to life as flowers do. This experience healed me of the social trauma I had experienced all throughout the pandemic. I could not believe people were being friendly to one another. It was a stark contrast to the antisocial and selfish behavior I had witnessed during the initial stages of the pandemic. After this group meditation, I mingled with the crowd while playing Tiny Little Seeds by The Persuaders, a local psychedelic band from Maryland in the 1960s. “Tiny little seeds, where are you hiding? Tiny little seeds, just winter abiding. Will the summer show me and the whole world what we know that flowers always bloom after snow?” No one told me to turn it off. Next, I wanted to play Flower Lady and Her Assistant by The Seeds.

I left the farm with a spring in my step as I got a text message from an old girlfriend. “Are you going to the swap?” it said. I replied that I was just leaving. “No, not that swap,” she wrote “the fairy swap at the Church of the Guardian Angel! It starts at 1:00” I decided to take the long way back through the woods and reconnect with her at the event. On my walk back, I carried with me a bag with floral prints my boyfriend had found in a free box the night before. I passed a little free library where I found a graphic novel, “The Gardener and the Sprite.” I put that in my bag with the rest of my goodies and continued walking down the Avenue until I came to the clearing that led into greater Wyman Park and came out to the other side of Charles Village. I circled my way back to Remington, where I found a bouquet of spring flowers lying in the street and added it to my bag. Inside the church old friends were waiting and we greeted each other with joy. “I haven’t seen you in so long!” I cried to a photographer I knew. “Well, neither have we,” he said “We have been inside this whole time too...” My friend Anya and I adorned ourselves in flower crowns and fairy strands and treated ourselves to a photoshoot. After that, we went for a drive to her house where we planted some of the flower seeds in her garden as we basked in the glow of the sunset. As we planted the small pepper seeds in containers and drank tea together, I was grateful I went out on a limb and decided to attend the events. The act of feeling the earth in our hands was grounding, while planting the seeds allowed us to hope for the future. The plants will grow because we know that the sun will continue to rise each day. Being in the garden was very healing and calming. Life felt beautiful and peaceful.