Turning over a new leaf

January is the traditional time for making resolutions to be better, smarter, healthier……whatever your current goals are. It is, in short, time to turn over a new leaf, to leave (happily) last year behind and enjoy a fresh start in the New Year.

Nature, too, seems to be turning over a few new leaves, though you have to look closely to find them. I’m always amazed but gratified to see new growth on plants even in January. These are the “front line workers,” ready to brave cold and dreary conditions to bring early bloom to a weary world.

Most of these plants aren’t actually blooming yet but are getting ready for the late winter show by putting out new leaves. The small English primrose (distant kin to the garish, neon-colored primroses found in garden centers) is establishing a healthy mound of crinkly light green leaves, even though the first yellow blossoms won’t come for another six to eight weeks.

Forget-me-not, too, is looking robust these days as it plumps and preens and takes advantage of any unoccupied space. In March, sky blue flowers will curl up like a scorpion’s tail to unfurl and bloom, one tiny blossom at a time.

Of course among the very earliest bloomers are the Lenten roses, the Hellebore species whose most vigorous growth and spectacular bloom occurs at the end of January. Often, these whitish green or purplish pink blossoms are the only bright color in the garden. Reveling in their lack of competition, they bloom profusely for several months until the rest of the garden seems to catch up.

And of course weeds such as chickweed, dandelion and wild onions are taking advantage of the basically bare playing field to fill in and spread while the spreading is good.

I love the new leaves of nature and I love looking for them right now, when finding a single new leaf is a cause for celebration. In the middle of spring, when plants burst forth in a joyful parade of abundance, it’s a little more difficult to appreciate a single leaf.

So, my “new leaf”, my resolve, is to take time and appreciate each moment and to live my life in gratitude for every leaf, every flower, every living thing and for every breath to be a hallelujah.