Imagine that you were walking in a city park, on a campus, or along a street, and suddenly you see that someone has set up a dozen original paintings of Claude Monet. The masterpieces are before your eyes. Along your path, you see “Impression, Sunrise,” “Winter At Giverny,” and “The Water-Lily Pond,” among many others. Would you stop to look closely at these paintings or works by Pablo Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, or Paul Klee?

It is this glory before our eyes, and even more, with the bursting of buds and the arrival of spring blossoms and leaves, for these are nature’s masterpieces. Still, many of us take a look, think “how beautiful,” and walk on by.

Yet I find the whole phenomenon of tree blossoms quite startling, mysterious, and beautiful, and in particular an affirmation of the beauty we are meant to receive. The trees contain dormant, tightly closed buds that outlast winter’s forces. Then in a complex combination of spring’s warmer temperatures and other changes, suddenly – heaven knows when and which exact moment – the buds open and flowers and leaves burst out in a pattern of rebirth each spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

Each spring the natural world reawakens and creates a performance that asks us simply to savor and enjoy it. The trees bring forth fragile blossoms and tiny tender leaves, and it’s a “catch me if you can” moment, fleeting. For those precious days, the blossoms are present with us, but are we present with them? It is the moment of contemplating – really looking – that makes us fully present. We can be reawakened like the new season.

One place I discovered to contemplate the season’s reawakening in blossoms and tender young leaves is at the college campus of SUNY New Paltz. College campuses are often beautiful places to walk peacefully and view the turn of seasons. But if you aren’t a student or you don’t teach or work at SUNY New Paltz and don’t venture on campus, you truly can’t tell from Route 32 or Route 208 in New Paltz how beautiful and peaceful this campus is. (This year the early bloom on fruit trees has caused concerns for farmers in the Hudson Valley and elsewhere, who are worried that any frost could spell trouble for their fruit crops.)

Take In the Moment

The day of my visit was a brilliantly sunny afternoon, with a bright blue cloudless sky, temperatures in the 60s, and a gentle breeze. I walked to see the dozen or so blossoming trees along a meandering stream through the middle of campus that leads into the large pond. I also sat in absolute stillness, and I felt the wind lift my hair and edge its fingers through the willow branches. The birds twittered, and students chattered and laughed together on their way to classes. It felt timeless and perfect.

Each spring day is full of much activity, as the plant and animal world reawakens and sets about its business of birth, feeding, and growth. Yet contemplating a single hour allows one to enter a particular stillness, with a sense that the new growth is overflowing and precious – just for this moment. In Japan, where people have celebrated the blossoming cherry trees for many centuries, the cherry blossoms symbolize life’s beauty and fleeting nature. The blossom is one of nature’s most powerful messages: Breathe slowly. Be in the present moment. Appreciate its loveliness.

Each year, I love to follow the sequence of buds to blooms and leafing, first by looking at them in the winter. Then, in a single crabapple tree over a sequence of spring days, for instance, the small buds burst, tiny enclosed rose-pink buds come out, and then they open to soft, pinkish white blossoms surrounded by bright green leaves. Many magnificent colors unfolded within sight on this day at SUNY New Paltz: blossoms of deep rose-pink, creamy white, and white with pale-pink backs; rust-red stems; electric-green leaves with small wine-red edging; and stamens of corn-silk yellow, just to name some. The sight of the pinks and whites against the deep blue sky was dazzling.

When I slow down to look, I walk softly upon the earth. I’m mindful that the divine force that created us wants us to enjoy this beauty we have been given and to be happy. Blossoms say this to us, for in their existence they delight us. When we open our eyes and our hearts, we receive the overflowing beauty of a single spring day.

Please share a sighting of the spring blossoms and flowers, or a favorite place where you look at the spring beauty.

View the slide show larger in Flickr.