Yesterday, on the first day of spring, I was in my office on a work Zoom call. My son, a senior, arrived home from school. He tiptoed toward my desk. I gave him a low wave out of camera range and a quick smile. He emptied his hand onto my desk. He left the room and, on my notepad, a palm-size cherry blossom sprig.
My birthday is March 21st and I'd been sick for three days but woke yesterday to feeling so much better... so your description is quite literally true! 😊
I hesitate to look at my email since it is usually not that enjoyable... except for the Austin Kleon newsletter! Ah... such a rich dive in to all things I like and fascinating things to learn (the plants, amazing!)!! And David Hockney's book was a Gem! I sneaked it into one of my artworks https://www.instagram.com/p/CYmJ041rlBd/
I feel similar, I recently unsubscribed from everything I was subscribed to, to save money and because I wasn't actively using/watching/reading them. . . but couldn't get myself to unsubscribe from Austin Kleon, even though I hadn't read his content in awhile, because every time I do I am so inspired and my life feels more on track. (Instead I made a commitment to make time to go down the rabbit hole of inspiration on a regular basis).
I follow an instragram account, @1bike1world It's maintained by a Scottish bicyclist (who was formerly a welder) who is bicycling all over Europe. (He's now switched to a van.)
About four years ago he rescued an abandonned, straving kitten in Bosna, who insisted on riding on his shoulder. He quickly fell in love with her, and he sky rocketed to fame when a subsequent video on @dodo highlighted their relationship. He has over 1 million followers, and has written a children's book and book on Nala (the name of the cat) that the NY Times recommended as a good read.
One week ago as he was travelling in Serbia he spotted a wounded pup unable to move in a field. He stopped his van, sent out a SOS to his followers for a vet and got a quick response from the woman who had translated his books into Serbian. He rushed the pup to the vet and the news was not good. She was unable to control her bowels, unable to walk, and starving. Initially, it was assumed there were serious spinal injuries due to being hit by a car, but a subsequent conclusion proved worse. It was her pelvis that was injured and she had been shot. Dean (the bicyclist's name) wrestled with putting her down, but couldn't. Another SOS call went out, and the only vet specialist in Belgrade made a trip to the vet hospital where the pup was staying, and did the necessary surgery.
Dean then started a gofundme fund asking for 4,000 pounds. In less than 24 hours he raised 75,000 pounds.
And yesterday, on the first day of spring, there is only good news. The surgery went well. The pup has taken a few tentative steps. A lab in Belgrade has offered free testing. A high ranking police official asked to be taken to the spot where the injured pup was found so they might be able to find the perpetrator. (No luck here.) And last night the national Serbian news featured the story.
But why should we expect anything less...it's spring!
I'm so glad this seems to have a happy ending - I was already getting teary half way through your story. I can't read anything with animals in it - even happy stuff! I learned this the hard way when my partner likes to show me 'happy' animal stories. I still sob.
I understand. But this lone bicyclist gets social media right and he's also funny.
It just dawned on me today, that he basically tells a story with ongoing chapters, so all his followers want to know what happens next. He somehow builds up anticipation and we eagerly await the next installment.
He sells an annual calendar that raises over 100,000 pounds and the monies are distributed to small animal welfare organizations. What I find so encouraging is this one person, follows his dream and its coming true. And it only started when he rescued a crying kitten in Bosna.
Loved “The Trees” poem by Larkin. Good I read the poem three times, which I always do. (Amanda Gorman taught me to read thrice.). I first read the line “Their greenness is a kind of grief” as “Their green ass is a kind of grief”. Shows you why you should read something more than once, especially if you just got up and your eyes are still waking up.
I read it the same way! Because I read too fast, I often misread. But sometimes I'm pretty delighted by what I think I've read--including "Their green ass is a kind of grief." Maybe not an improvement on the original but definitely something to ponder.
My dad sent me a picture of some budding greenery in his yard and quoted some of Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay." I still love the first way I was introduced to it, C.Thomas Howell reciting as Pony Boy in The Outsiders movie.
At certain times of the year, I feel like time is both— linear and circular! And that is what has sparked my fascination with the ancient idea of 72 microseasons —each lasting just 5 days. Five days seems like a linear, human-sized, tangible amount of time. Yet the small linear segments are part of a larger Circle of an entire year, which is, in turn, part of a larger Spiral made of many years.
The poem I always keep coming back to is “Answers to Letters” by Tomas Tranströmer. The image of himself, rushing along spiraling corridors, and sometimes pressing his ear to the wall to hear himself rushing by on the other side is exactly how time feels for me…
"Sometimes an abyss opens between Tuesday and Wednesday but twenty-six years may be passed in a moment. Time is not a straight line, it's more of a labyrinth, and if you press close to the wall at the right place you can hear the hurrying steps and the voices, you can hear yourself walking past there on the other side." https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/answers-letters
Great visuals-- I like how you showed the steps within the straight line. And I’m glad the idea of micro and macro perspectives on time sparks your imagination! I’m always happy to see where your curious mind goes-- 10Things brings me weekly joy.
That reminds me. I still have to read the book Light Rains Sometimes Fall by Lev Parikian. It's been sitting on my shelf for almost a year! I hope it's a good one.
Oh yes-- it’s a beautiful book. I appreciate her Beginner’s Mind point of view.
She writes “ It didn’t matter if I only roughly understood the woods that I was about to enter, for I always discovered along the way some thing I hadn’t known when I started.” So encouraging to anybody who can let their own natural curiosity lead them their learning. Sort of mirrors the philosophy of unschooling and delight-led learning-- for adults as well as children.
I really feel your excitement for the arrival of spring - longer days, warmer temperatures, and the bursts of color as flowers begin to bloom. We tend to have rather gloomy and rainy springs up here in the PNW, so every sunny day is an absolute delight. This past winter (I can say that now, can't I?) seemed especially grim. Thank you for another lovely newsletter!
Thank you for this. I love to watch the seasons change. I also need to thank you for something completely unrelated. I just finished reading Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick. It had been on my to-read pile for quite a long time and I had forgotten why I bought it, but of course it was a mention from you! It was not exactly the book I expected, but it turns out it came at just the right time because my grandson who is almost 8 is very excited about the MIT Scratch Jr coding app. I’m also thinking that my dad, who is 92 and was an early Mac adopter (though now can’t figure out how to operate his iPhone) might enjoy it. The Scratch community appears to be a supportive and friendly place, one of the few on the internet, like this community of readers of your newsletters.
The only thing about Scratch is that it can get kind of wild with all that kid-generated content. I had to monitor what my kids were doing on there. It’s sort of YouTube-esque that way. But it got my son super into coding!
Ha, that figures. He loves YouTube and the things he watches...puzzle me. One time several years ago he picked a crude video game with a toy T-rex walking on a path gruesomely devouring creatures in its path. When I said I didn’t quite understand the point, his comment to me was “Watch and learn, Neenie.” One of my favorite quotes ever, though I did not learn.
I have spent the last month struggling to get going on my plans for the year, but after expressing that to several people, realized that almost everyone has been feeling that way lately. And I've noticed that strongly the last couple of years too that I have a period of feeling like it's time to get going, but I can't. . . yet. . . and there is a month or two of waiting and being slow. Obviously, it's that UNLOCKING season you talk about in your Almanac Zine! I've noticed in my following of the seasons (this is really my spiritual path as a Sister of the Moon), and informed by the celtic wheel of the year, that there is a very pronounced period of "spring announces it is coming" and hope and energy and inspiration are renewed, but it has not arrived yet, and we are not yet resourced (physically and mentally) to bring our visions into active manifestation.
Thanks for the reminder on Unlocking season—definitely the case here on the shores of Lake Michigan where we may have gotten more snow in March than in January and February combined!
Another great post Austin. The bit about long-day plants and short-day plants was especially fascinating to me. Spring is my favorite season and I always start to feel more inspired when there is more daylight, the trees start getting new perfect leaves, and flowers start blooming. This understanding of how different plants need different amounts of dark gives me a new appreciation of the dark periods. I'm also excited about a new class in surface design I just started -- more excited than I've been about a direction for my art in quite a long time. Maybe my personal dark times are starting to pay off! Here is a four-leaf repeating pattern I created over the weekend. Since I was very young, I've always looked for and found four-leaf clovers. It seems March is the best month to find them in north Georgia before mowing starts in earnest and the heat starts to stunt their growth. Just another reason to love spring! https://vanessa-lowry.pixels.com/featured/whole-lotta-luck-vanessa-lowry.html
Mar 21, 2023·edited Mar 21, 2023Liked by Austin Kleon
Wonderful insights and links as always! 'thought you might get a kick out of the fact that the area beneath the eyes innervated by a branch of the trigeminal nerve is called the "infraorbital bouquet".
I'm in the PNW and spring is IT for me. The apple and cherry blossoms, the tulips. Every year I wait to see if my roses will bloom (orange/pink). I am grateful that I'm here to see them. The University of Washington has a live cherry blossom cam on YT. Still early .....
As I read this post, a 'discovery" that I made a couple years ago kept coming to mind. I spent 2021 keeping phenology circles to track the weather, moon cycle, sunrise and sunset times, as well as the changes in nature that I noticed in my backyard and neighborhood. One of the things that I noticed was that when trees are ready to leaf out, the trees that don't make some kind of fruit, flower first and then leave appear. Trees that flower and become fruit, leaf out and then flower. I imagine this is a form of protection of the fruit. The leaves create a protective shield of sorts. Slowly, our Maple tree is flowering and the squirrels and birds enjoy the treat, chilly winds rip the flowers off and next to it, the apple tree sits waiting for the weather to warm more.
Yesterday, on the first day of spring, I was in my office on a work Zoom call. My son, a senior, arrived home from school. He tiptoed toward my desk. I gave him a low wave out of camera range and a quick smile. He emptied his hand onto my desk. He left the room and, on my notepad, a palm-size cherry blossom sprig.
What a mensch! ❤️
Ha! I had to look up mensch! Thank you for your inspiring spring post, Austin.
Awww...
Spring always feels like the day you feel better after being sick for what felt like years. You realize it’s all going to be ok.
Well, damn. That's the best description of spring I've ever heard!
My birthday is March 21st and I'd been sick for three days but woke yesterday to feeling so much better... so your description is quite literally true! 😊
Happy Birthday!!
I hesitate to look at my email since it is usually not that enjoyable... except for the Austin Kleon newsletter! Ah... such a rich dive in to all things I like and fascinating things to learn (the plants, amazing!)!! And David Hockney's book was a Gem! I sneaked it into one of my artworks https://www.instagram.com/p/CYmJ041rlBd/
I feel similar, I recently unsubscribed from everything I was subscribed to, to save money and because I wasn't actively using/watching/reading them. . . but couldn't get myself to unsubscribe from Austin Kleon, even though I hadn't read his content in awhile, because every time I do I am so inspired and my life feels more on track. (Instead I made a commitment to make time to go down the rabbit hole of inspiration on a regular basis).
Agreed! I'm a recent subscriber, but I'm already getting so much inspiration! Thanks so much, Austin.
When in spring....(and here's your spring story)
I follow an instragram account, @1bike1world It's maintained by a Scottish bicyclist (who was formerly a welder) who is bicycling all over Europe. (He's now switched to a van.)
About four years ago he rescued an abandonned, straving kitten in Bosna, who insisted on riding on his shoulder. He quickly fell in love with her, and he sky rocketed to fame when a subsequent video on @dodo highlighted their relationship. He has over 1 million followers, and has written a children's book and book on Nala (the name of the cat) that the NY Times recommended as a good read.
One week ago as he was travelling in Serbia he spotted a wounded pup unable to move in a field. He stopped his van, sent out a SOS to his followers for a vet and got a quick response from the woman who had translated his books into Serbian. He rushed the pup to the vet and the news was not good. She was unable to control her bowels, unable to walk, and starving. Initially, it was assumed there were serious spinal injuries due to being hit by a car, but a subsequent conclusion proved worse. It was her pelvis that was injured and she had been shot. Dean (the bicyclist's name) wrestled with putting her down, but couldn't. Another SOS call went out, and the only vet specialist in Belgrade made a trip to the vet hospital where the pup was staying, and did the necessary surgery.
Dean then started a gofundme fund asking for 4,000 pounds. In less than 24 hours he raised 75,000 pounds.
And yesterday, on the first day of spring, there is only good news. The surgery went well. The pup has taken a few tentative steps. A lab in Belgrade has offered free testing. A high ranking police official asked to be taken to the spot where the injured pup was found so they might be able to find the perpetrator. (No luck here.) And last night the national Serbian news featured the story.
But why should we expect anything less...it's spring!
I'm so glad this seems to have a happy ending - I was already getting teary half way through your story. I can't read anything with animals in it - even happy stuff! I learned this the hard way when my partner likes to show me 'happy' animal stories. I still sob.
I understand. But this lone bicyclist gets social media right and he's also funny.
It just dawned on me today, that he basically tells a story with ongoing chapters, so all his followers want to know what happens next. He somehow builds up anticipation and we eagerly await the next installment.
He sells an annual calendar that raises over 100,000 pounds and the monies are distributed to small animal welfare organizations. What I find so encouraging is this one person, follows his dream and its coming true. And it only started when he rescued a crying kitten in Bosna.
You’ve convinced me... I had to have a look 🐈⬛
Chills! What a beautiful story of the kindness in our world.
Loved “The Trees” poem by Larkin. Good I read the poem three times, which I always do. (Amanda Gorman taught me to read thrice.). I first read the line “Their greenness is a kind of grief” as “Their green ass is a kind of grief”. Shows you why you should read something more than once, especially if you just got up and your eyes are still waking up.
LOL. That’s why I type my favorite poems — that’s often when they really sink in
I read it the same way! Because I read too fast, I often misread. But sometimes I'm pretty delighted by what I think I've read--including "Their green ass is a kind of grief." Maybe not an improvement on the original but definitely something to ponder.
It’s like looking up song lyrics: your mondegreens are always better! https://austinkleon.com/2019/09/26/mishearing-as-a-creative-act/
I love the Tom Waits' quote at the top of this post! And that Lynda Barry story about "Groovin'" is gold!
My dad sent me a picture of some budding greenery in his yard and quoted some of Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Stay." I still love the first way I was introduced to it, C.Thomas Howell reciting as Pony Boy in The Outsiders movie.
Me too! I remember that.
At certain times of the year, I feel like time is both— linear and circular! And that is what has sparked my fascination with the ancient idea of 72 microseasons —each lasting just 5 days. Five days seems like a linear, human-sized, tangible amount of time. Yet the small linear segments are part of a larger Circle of an entire year, which is, in turn, part of a larger Spiral made of many years.
The poem I always keep coming back to is “Answers to Letters” by Tomas Tranströmer. The image of himself, rushing along spiraling corridors, and sometimes pressing his ear to the wall to hear himself rushing by on the other side is exactly how time feels for me…
"Sometimes an abyss opens between Tuesday and Wednesday but twenty-six years may be passed in a moment. Time is not a straight line, it's more of a labyrinth, and if you press close to the wall at the right place you can hear the hurrying steps and the voices, you can hear yourself walking past there on the other side." https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/answers-letters
Okay you inspired a whole blog post!! https://austinkleon.com/2023/03/23/circular-time-linear-time-and-microseasons/
Great visuals-- I like how you showed the steps within the straight line. And I’m glad the idea of micro and macro perspectives on time sparks your imagination! I’m always happy to see where your curious mind goes-- 10Things brings me weekly joy.
This is a great geometry lesson! If you zoom in on a circle, eventually it looks like a straight line...
And thank you for reminding me of Tomas Tranströmer — I have one of his books around here and need to read more.
A bot I follow on twitter for the micro seasons: https://twitter.com/smallseasonsbot
That reminds me. I still have to read the book Light Rains Sometimes Fall by Lev Parikian. It's been sitting on my shelf for almost a year! I hope it's a good one.
Connie, sorry I was thinking of Liza Dalby’s book: East Wind Melts the Ice
A gorgeous read. I haven’t read Lev Parisian yet-- it’s definitely on my list.
Thanks Ann. I guess I'll be adding another book to my wishlist!
Oh yes-- it’s a beautiful book. I appreciate her Beginner’s Mind point of view.
She writes “ It didn’t matter if I only roughly understood the woods that I was about to enter, for I always discovered along the way some thing I hadn’t known when I started.” So encouraging to anybody who can let their own natural curiosity lead them their learning. Sort of mirrors the philosophy of unschooling and delight-led learning-- for adults as well as children.
I really feel your excitement for the arrival of spring - longer days, warmer temperatures, and the bursts of color as flowers begin to bloom. We tend to have rather gloomy and rainy springs up here in the PNW, so every sunny day is an absolute delight. This past winter (I can say that now, can't I?) seemed especially grim. Thank you for another lovely newsletter!
We’re having a PNW day here! https://twitter.com/austinkleon/status/1638168756726960130?s=46&t=reB2a2-L-k6a3ZsWuF6_ZQ
Thank you for this. I love to watch the seasons change. I also need to thank you for something completely unrelated. I just finished reading Lifelong Kindergarten by Mitchel Resnick. It had been on my to-read pile for quite a long time and I had forgotten why I bought it, but of course it was a mention from you! It was not exactly the book I expected, but it turns out it came at just the right time because my grandson who is almost 8 is very excited about the MIT Scratch Jr coding app. I’m also thinking that my dad, who is 92 and was an early Mac adopter (though now can’t figure out how to operate his iPhone) might enjoy it. The Scratch community appears to be a supportive and friendly place, one of the few on the internet, like this community of readers of your newsletters.
The only thing about Scratch is that it can get kind of wild with all that kid-generated content. I had to monitor what my kids were doing on there. It’s sort of YouTube-esque that way. But it got my son super into coding!
Ha, that figures. He loves YouTube and the things he watches...puzzle me. One time several years ago he picked a crude video game with a toy T-rex walking on a path gruesomely devouring creatures in its path. When I said I didn’t quite understand the point, his comment to me was “Watch and learn, Neenie.” One of my favorite quotes ever, though I did not learn.
Austin, this post comes through as a beautiful spring bouquet of words/ideas and images. A tonic, truly. Thank you!
I have spent the last month struggling to get going on my plans for the year, but after expressing that to several people, realized that almost everyone has been feeling that way lately. And I've noticed that strongly the last couple of years too that I have a period of feeling like it's time to get going, but I can't. . . yet. . . and there is a month or two of waiting and being slow. Obviously, it's that UNLOCKING season you talk about in your Almanac Zine! I've noticed in my following of the seasons (this is really my spiritual path as a Sister of the Moon), and informed by the celtic wheel of the year, that there is a very pronounced period of "spring announces it is coming" and hope and energy and inspiration are renewed, but it has not arrived yet, and we are not yet resourced (physically and mentally) to bring our visions into active manifestation.
yesss! the unlocking!!
Thanks for the reminder on Unlocking season—definitely the case here on the shores of Lake Michigan where we may have gotten more snow in March than in January and February combined!
https://austinkleon.com/2018/12/22/four-or-more-seasons/
Another great post Austin. The bit about long-day plants and short-day plants was especially fascinating to me. Spring is my favorite season and I always start to feel more inspired when there is more daylight, the trees start getting new perfect leaves, and flowers start blooming. This understanding of how different plants need different amounts of dark gives me a new appreciation of the dark periods. I'm also excited about a new class in surface design I just started -- more excited than I've been about a direction for my art in quite a long time. Maybe my personal dark times are starting to pay off! Here is a four-leaf repeating pattern I created over the weekend. Since I was very young, I've always looked for and found four-leaf clovers. It seems March is the best month to find them in north Georgia before mowing starts in earnest and the heat starts to stunt their growth. Just another reason to love spring! https://vanessa-lowry.pixels.com/featured/whole-lotta-luck-vanessa-lowry.html
“ Maybe my personal dark times are starting to pay off!” This would be a great cartoon caption 😂
You are welcome to use it!
Wonderful insights and links as always! 'thought you might get a kick out of the fact that the area beneath the eyes innervated by a branch of the trigeminal nerve is called the "infraorbital bouquet".
That in turn reminds me of Marvell's poem, "Eyes and Tears", https://allpoetry.com/Eyes-And-Tears
Infraorbital bouquet!!
I'm in the PNW and spring is IT for me. The apple and cherry blossoms, the tulips. Every year I wait to see if my roses will bloom (orange/pink). I am grateful that I'm here to see them. The University of Washington has a live cherry blossom cam on YT. Still early .....
As I read this post, a 'discovery" that I made a couple years ago kept coming to mind. I spent 2021 keeping phenology circles to track the weather, moon cycle, sunrise and sunset times, as well as the changes in nature that I noticed in my backyard and neighborhood. One of the things that I noticed was that when trees are ready to leaf out, the trees that don't make some kind of fruit, flower first and then leave appear. Trees that flower and become fruit, leaf out and then flower. I imagine this is a form of protection of the fruit. The leaves create a protective shield of sorts. Slowly, our Maple tree is flowering and the squirrels and birds enjoy the treat, chilly winds rip the flowers off and next to it, the apple tree sits waiting for the weather to warm more.
Just...thankyou...