It has been quite a while, about a month in fact, since I last came to my reflection spot. When I first came across this place to sit and reflect, I told myself that I would come back here regularly, even during times that I wasn’t writing my reflection blog post. It’s not even that far off the beaten path, and every time I cross the lake by way of the bridge, the opportunity arises to take a mere 20 to 30 steps to the right to reach my spot, but I have failed to do so even once since my last post. There was no specific reason why I chose this spot as my reflection point, other than the fact that I simply wanted to stop searching for the most perfect point on campus to sit and reflect, and rather find the beauty and experience the nature of a spot that I would not have expected myself to choose.
I remember thinking back to my first reflection post, and how I was so excited to see the many changes in my environment around me as time passed. I was hoping for more intense sunlight breaking through the trees, I hoped for warmer weather, for more vibrant colors springing from the ground and from the forest around me. Mostly, I wished for the environment around me to be livelier than it was during the fist week of February. On my walk over to my reflection spot today, it was hard to find inspiration and much excitement on this dull and dreary day. My mind is plagued and stressed with thoughts of schoolwork and midterms, and I feel as though I am simply going through the motions; closing my eyes and hoping when I open them this week will already be over. The sky is gray above me, the blustery cold air swirling, and the clouds are spitting rain down at me every few moments. When I sat down in my spot, I thought to myself that this was not the peaceful and relaxing experience that I was hoping to find here today. But I quickly removed most of the negative thoughts from my head and started to realize some of the changes that had occurred near me since my last visit.
Even though the weather has remained fairly cold, the ground is beginning to soften under my feet. My first visit to this spot was after a light snowstorm and the icy ground was tough and impenetrable. I also noticed a change in the lake, as today the lake was flowing steadily away from me, where during my last visit, the lake was partially covered over in a thin sheet of ice and the water remained relatively still. I opened my ears and heard birds chirping and listened to squirrels rummaging around in the leaves, and I even saw a rabbit jumping around on the opposite side of the lake! These little signs of added life allowed me to see that spring is looming and that more and more changes are on their way, I just have to be a little more patient.