“Every morning / the world / is created. / Under the orange

sticks of the sun / the heaped / ashes of the night / turn into leaves again.“

One can always count on Mary Oliver to evoke so viscerally the life force at the core of the natural world.

Amidst all the terrible news accosting us every day from the Middle East, the corrupt Russia wing and cruelty of the MAGA Party, the disheartening murder of Alexei Navalny, and everything Trump, it’s important for each of us to find ways to restore our sense of balance and higher values every day. One of my great pleasures that helps me to do this is my long early morning walks in my neighborhood – often before the first light. Despite being in Los Angeles, it feels as if I’m out in the country given the wooded character of my surroundings. I especially look forward in this time of year to the arrival of spring.

This week I was surprised to inhale for the first time this year the fragrant scent of the blooming of flowers. Instinctively I found myself feeling the happy expectation of and a sense of renewal sprouting in the grasses, trees and dormant flower beds.

I think too, when this season begins, of these verses from the Biblical Song of Songs (2:11-13 – translation, Marcia Falk):

“For the long wet months are past, / The rains have fed the earth / And left it bright with blossoms

Birds wing in the low sky, / Dove and songbird singing / In the open air above  

Earth nourishing tree and vine, / Green fig and tender grape, / Green and tender fragrance”

I offer here a number of images that I photographed in recent days as the sun was rising in the east. In about a month, I’ll offer images of spring as more flowers appear in the land.