Simplicty in Springtime
Spring is here and that makes my heart happy. I love the beauty and simplicity of this season. The budding of flowers, the chirping of birds, the quiet renewing of life all around us. And yet, how often do we walk right past it? Something to think about…
I believe there is something almost instructive about the way spring arrives. It doesn’t announce itself with grand gestures. It shows up slowly, subtly, in small moments you might miss if you are moving too fast. A crocus pushing up through the frost. The faint smell of earth after a spring rain. The way light lingers just a little longer each evening. It simply starts to show up.
For me, the simplicity of this season reminds me that simplicity is not about doing less. It is about being fully present for what is already here. So much of our daily lives are spent in a kind of mental clutter. Scrolling through what we do not have, planning for what has not happened yet, replaying what has already passed. Spring has a way of gently pulling us out of that if we allow it. It hands us something real, something in the now, and it asks us to notice.
Think about the last time you actually stopped to look at a tree in bloom. Not glanced at it from your kitchen window or your car window, but stopped, looked up, and took it all in, There is a kind of joy available in that moment that no productivity hack or self improvement plan can manufacture. It is free, you just have to slow down long enough to receive it.
When we embrace these simple moments, we begin to notice how much of what we truly need is already woven into our ordinary life. God is really good at doing that. A warm cup of coffee in our favorite mug, the evening taking longer to wind down after the shorter winter days. Kids on bikes and waving to our neighbors out on walks again after a long winter break. These are not small things. They are the texture of a life well-lived, and spring has a way of making them visible again.
I have challenged myself this spring to take notice of what is around me and I want to share with you some simple ways you can notice too. Honestly it has been a game changer for my soul, for my ability to sense gratitude. Here is what I have been doing…
First, you don’t need a retreat or a complete lifestyle overhaul to begin. Start here, this week.
Take a 10 minute morning walk without your phone. Leave it on the counter. Just walk and look. Notice what is coming up from the ground, what is opening on the branches, what sounds are filling the air that maybe weren’t there a few weeks ago. I think you will be surprised how much has been quietly happening without your awareness.
I have added to my gratitude journal a small rhythm around nature. Before bed, I name one thing I noticed outside that day. It doesn’t have to be poetic or profound. Last night I mentioned the little red finch making a nest on my back porch. The act of naming it trains our attention toward abundance rather than absence.
Spend a few minutes outside in silence. This one is hard for me, I am not the silent type. I am not praying out loud or planning or processing the days meetings. I am listening to the sounds around me. Renewal tends to happen not in the noise but in the quiet spaces between everything.
I have been re reading this verse in Isaiah – Isaiah 43:19 “ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” That verse has always felt like spring to me. Not because it speaks of spring but because it speaks of perception. Do you not perceive? The invitation is not just to believe something new is possible, it is to open our eyes and actually look for it.
There is a reason why people have celebrated spring for centuries across every culture. It is not just the weather, it is the feeling that something new is becoming available. The ground that was once frozen, is ready again. That not only pertains to the soil but to our individual lives as well.
I think if spring time was creating a marketing campaign for itself it would say something like this… You don’t have to wait for a dramatic turning point, a big announcement or the perfect conditions – I am proof that new life tends to grow in the quiet, ordinary spaces. In the small act of stepping outside. In the choice to look up and notice, in the decision to stay curious about what new things are coming your way.
So friends will you join me this spring and walk a little slower, keep your windows open, and let yourself be surprised by what is already blooming around you? I think we all will be renewed by what we find.
