Helena: Spring: A time of spiritual awakening

I love to watch the motion of water, whether I'm at a pond, lake, river or by the ocean. It makes time stand still. But when I look long enough, I can feel myself moving with the waves, sometimes being swept up by them.

Everything is dynamic; always moving and changing. There is a time and a season for everything under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Spring is almost upon us, meaning longer days and shorter nights. I hate losing an hour of sleep as we spring forward on Saturday night, but I love having more time for fun in the sun.

As I watched the water flowing recently during a morning walk at Green Meadow Lake in Hobbs, I wondered, “Where is the water going?” Sometimes the water slightly ripples with the wind, and sometimes it makes a roaring dash toward somewhere, but never staying still or remaining the same. I think that is how God wants us to be, too; changing with the seasons, never being stagnated. Headed somewhere, even if we don't know where we're going, sometimes going with the flow.

New life can only come with some kind of movement and with water. As spring approaches, we will have to water freshly planted or revived flowers for them to bloom in due time. Like plants, young buds need nurturing, too. Not just a few sprinkles, either, but nurturing with care, and sometimes, even with a little conversation. Ask any gardener. My friend, Josie DeLeon, sometimes finds it necessary to give extra TLC to her struggling plants. A miniature rose bush that she bought was starting to die and so she said she has been babying it as it sits next to her statue of The Virgin Mary. “I just touch it and say 'You're gonna be OK because you are next to Mama Mary.'”

Renowned Hispanic writer, Rudolfo Anaya, describes, in his book, “Bless Me, Ultima,” what he calls, “The Presence of the River” as a living spirit with a soul. In his beautiful sonnet, “God's Grandeur,” 19th century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” and he ends it by saying, “Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs — because the Holy Ghost over the bent. World broods with warm breasts and with ah! bright wings.”

Nature sings in spring with the grandeur of God. The waters sway to the rhythmic humming and the wind breezes with the movement of Holy Spirits.

Helena Rodriguez is a Portales native. Contact her at:

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