Spring is sprung

This morning my friend Vanessa shared a photo she took in her yard in St. Pete and it made me smile and go "hmmmmmmm." 

Left: monarch, St. Pete FL 3/26/17 (image by Vanessa Wheeler); right: monarch caterpillars in Auckland 3/23/17

Three days ago I walked among hundreds of monarch caterpillars in a milkweed grove on my last day in NZ. 

What a perfect way to reconcile past, present, future. 

Auckland Nov 2016; San Diego Mar 2017

Yesterday I took pictures of trees here in San Diego, where a wet winter has inspired everything with roots to  burst into jubilant leaf and blossom. 

These are the images that frame my world view, the stories I tell myself.

It wasn't just a trip to "over there" that's ended.

Now there is here. The connections are synchronous and constant.  

A beautiful spring day here in a town that was and still often feels like home, mostly because of longtime connections with people, somewhat from connection to place, and the bleedthrough of memory, a trickster with a convex lens. 

Photo by Judy Reeves

Haha. Judy's FB post of me with angel wings made me feel like I should call this chapter "Look Homeward, Candy," as I slide into a month of visits in San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Francisco, St. Pete, Chicago, Indiana -- all places I've been planted, felt the connection to earth and sky and water, grown with the love of family and friends. 

Sometimes I envy those who have lived in that one house or place their whole lives. I wonder what that would be like. Today I feel grounded in the mystery and blessed with a full heart.  

Is the caterpillar aware of the idea of flight while it munches the leaf?  Does the monarch remember the sweet taste of milkweed?