great-great grandma and baby – 100 years apart in age

“Zwischen”- its a German word that best translates to the English word of “between”. When German’s explain the word, its more than just “between”, it’s this time with one foot in two separate worlds, hovering between both here and there.

This morning when I stared out my window, I recognized we are in one of nature’s greatest transitions/in-betweens. The “zwischen” of winter and spring. It’s neither winter nor spring, it is a giant sloppy, muddy mess of wonderfulness.

As we push our thoughts towards Spring (green grass, sprouting flowers, rainy days) or even going further into Summer, we miss the opportunity to embrace and recognize the beauty of the current state of transition we are in.

The crunching of ice beneath our boots, the snowball fights with little snow gear on, the mixing of snow and mud in our outdoor mud kitchen, the after-supper neighborhood walks without freezing, and so on.

But zwischen is so much more…it is the recognition that life is full of transitions of all size: an infant learning to sit, a four year old preparing for preschool, the moment we sit and wait for results from the doctor to be relayed to us, the summer between high school and college, the last few days of pregnancy, becoming an empty nester, a marriage dissolving, realizing that you require more specialized care in a long-term care setting, knowing you are in your final days of life.

How can we recognize and embrace nature’s transitions by seeing the beauty they offer us and others?