(The Shad) Shall Be Released

I just read an excellent (as always) Verlyn Klinkenborg editorial in The New York Times, my attempt to carry on a favorite Sunday morning ritual, even though it is truly very early Sunday morning in New York, too early even for the paper to be printed, let alone delivered and sitting on my kitchen table. He writes about shad and how they are likely going to start running this week. Despite living in a beautiful, perpetually-flowering place, I find myself missing the initial rush of spring blooms this year. Seasonal shifts are subtler here (with the exception of RAIN or NOT) and I find myself yearning for the binary shifts of home. Klinkenborg talks about all the new growth that will be appearing in the coming weeks; ramps, nettles and morels, but I’m struck most by the shad, plunging through the rivers, “following a vernal instinct that points directly upstream.”

There is something comforting in this mad rush.

I can’t help but take this as inspiration to push against the currents and simply move. I want to follow the shad’s example and find strength to forge onwards, in the face of inevitable, unavoidable opposing force.