March 15, 2015
After two of the harshest winters I can remember (harsher even than my winter in Finland 2012-2013), this year’s spring has come in like a cosmic miracle. One fine moment heralding spring’s arrival was my chance to teach Thoreau’s “Spring” chapter of Walden once again, this time at exactly the moment when the ice and snow were melting, revealing the patented forms of the Artist who made us all. But even more inspiring was my conversation this morning with the Naiads.
The Naiads—the freshwater nymphs of the springs—are always present and conversant, of course, even when the spring waters are flowing beneath rather than above the surface of the earth. But this morning, with at least ten acres of our property madly flowing with newly replenished springs, the Naiads were absolutely giddy in celebration of the birth of the new year (which in older times began in March).
I was walking around the meadows, creeks, springs, and ridges of the property all morning while my son Kivi was sleeping strapped to my chest in a Snuggli pack. As we approached each newly-refilled pool of spring water, the water fairies or naiads began singing and chattering more excitedly than I have ever heard them before. I was very happy to be able to combine this moment of parenting and spirit talk, knowing that in this experience Kivi was receiving an energetic bath of a sort just as I was.
While most of my conversations with the fairies this morning concerned myself, they did assure me that anyone who patiently tries to can tune into the celebration of the naiads at the springs. Naiads, I have learned, are far more outgoing with humans than are most species of fairies, which might account for all of the myths and folk legends concerning the seductiveness of these water fairies. While I take this to be somewhat of an embellishment, this much seems true: if you learn to open your heart in as ego-less a way as possible to the spirits of nature, you will eventually—perhaps after lots of internal self-harmonization—be able to join in their springtime celebration and song.
