Song of the Season

May Day.

Let’s talk about sex.

(Parental warning … this post talks about the birds and the bees. So, you know, if you’re okay talking about the birds and the bees, then by all means … carry on.)

May is a pretty sexy time in nature.

Trees are in full bloom now. The garden’s beginning to grow. The Farmer’s Market in my neighborhood is just starting for the season.  All kinds of flowers are unfolding. Baby animals are being born.

I’m fortunate enough to have friends that farm. So I get to see pictures of wee piglets fighting for their astoundingly patient mama sow’s milk. They also have tiny goats, still wet from birth, already walking on quite wobbly little legs. It’s awesome. New babies being born.

It’s just an amazing show of the power of Life right now.

Everything is so alive and vibrant. I have moments when I’ll turn down a tree-lined street in full spring sexiness. The whole street in bloom, showing off luminous white petals overhead and also strewn across the brilliant green grass below. The whole picture is so surreally vibrant. It’s like … an acid trip.

Spring feels a bit like an acid trip. Things are just brighter. The bright blue sky, with its perfectly placed fluffy white clouds. The buds finally getting ready to open on the last tree that blooms in my yard, hundreds of bright magenta beads outlining every last dark brown branch. It looks like a chocolate jelly bean tree you’d find in a Dr. Seuss land, the Jelly Bean Tree from Phillow Thooee.

And how about the scent from blooming lilacs? If you haven’t lately, the very next time you’re passing a lilac tree, pause for a second. Put your nose right up into the flowers. Don’t be too cool. Just put your nose right up in it and take a deep breath in. It’s wonderful. Ahh … (deep breath) ... lilac! I promise you you’ll take a second breath in there.

I was telling Jaden the other day how I can recall the smell of lilacs from my childhood. I remember the lilac bush that grew along the fence in my front yard. I’d see the lovely lavendar hue of the flowers forming against its lustrous green leaves, and when I’d catch a whiff of their blooms I knew it was almost time for summer vacation. How cool to now have my son, beginning his own annual count down to summer vacation by the clock of the lilac. Only 6 weeks to go, and the lilacs are just beginning to get your attention. When they’re in full show-off mode, and you begin to notice it’s also still light out at bedtime, well then … you’ve made it. Summer vacation is right around the corner.

Everything is absolutely showing off right now, trying to get your attention. And the bees’ attention. And the birds’ attention.

Like I said, spring is a sexy time of year.

One of Earth’s greatest gifts is her power to create all this gorgeous, wonderful life. This is a time to pause for a second and give thanks for the fertile, sexual energy that is present in all life. It’s a time for celebrating the force that brings forth new life and honoring that.

And not just in nature, but also in ourselves. It’s a pretty crazy cool thing to be able to actually create new life. I’m constantly astounded that once there was just Ben and me. And now, we have these two other people, these lives that we’ve made. Ben and I just made these two, beautiful, unique, creative, miraculous new beings. That’s a pretty incredible super power we human beings have. I’ll take a second to stand in awe and give thanks for that.

Sex is an important, necessary, joyous part of life. Without sex there would be no life. So, it seems like a pretty important part of life to give thanks for. And to celebrate. And to enjoy.  This is the time of year that we celebrate the joys of being alive. All the joys. Including the joy we experience in creating life.

And spring is a time when life just feels good. And if, for some reason, you don’t feel good, there’s a zillion trees and flowers and birds and fluffy white clouds in a vivid blue sky showing off, trying to get your attention.

I mean, talk about showing off and trying to get your attention - I haven’t even mentioned the first vegetable now standing proud in the garden … the asparagus. Classic phallic showoff. Isn’t it obvious May Day is all about sex?!