by Curt Kovener 
When you sit at a desk, deal with people, are greeted with one deadline after another, it is therapy to be alone in the woods.
I can see that why when our Lord was troubled he spent some time in the wilderness. It allows you have a few moments to meditate and contemplate and enjoy creation.
The same place where just a few weeks previous was frozen, snow covered and temperatures in the single digits was now near shirt sleeve weather…at least for the moment.
Work comes first so using a chainsaw to clear brush and block off previously felled trees exercises muscles that have been dormant too much from this sit down job I have. When the day is done I am tired and a bit sore, but it’s a good, satisfying kind of tired.
When I take a break I am greeted by the sounds of spring peepers. Eventhough it is barely past the spring solstice, the thermometer is approaching 70°, and the little frogs seem to be anxious to greet spring. But we all know that there will be more chilly weather, possibly snow before the real spring stands up.
This day is just a teasing stretch by Mother Nature, but I welcome it. I take some time to sit and enjoy the warm quiet interrupted by the peepers. Thoughts turn to the impending arrival of mushrooms and bluegill fishing. I make my annual pledge again that this year I will make more time for fishing.
The work obligations and home chores can wait. Though I hope it wasn’t a hollow promise made because my emotions were exhilerated by the warm day.
I watched two hawks flying lazily overhead calling to one another. Then a new sound is added to the peepers. From a distance I thought it was a hen turkey put-put-puttering. I cupped my hands to my ears straining to try to tell if the faint sound really was momma turkey looking for her suitor tom. I eventually determined it was leopard frogs also warming to the day and tuning up their rusty vocal chords long dormant during the winter’s nap.
Now atuned to the awakening of spring, I notice daffodils and crocus sticking their necks out above the sod. Robins seemed to be more in view. Even Charley the watch Lab, prefers a longer time to lollygag in the sunshine filled clearings of the wilderness.
Knowing how Mr. Murphy and his law apply to my life, by the time you are reading this, the temperature may be returning to winter. So until the Creator deems appropriate, the peepers will return to dormancy, the hardy crocus and daffodil will ‘whoa back’ on their growth, the robins’ nesting instinct will be postponed, and those mushrooms and bluegill will just have to wait a bit longer to make my acquaintence.
