Without the daily regimen of sunrise walks, my chances of catching one of those brilliant spectacles in pink is minimal. Combine that with the 5am alarm requirement, and I'm beginning to wonder about the motivation to get out there at dawn. I have to remind myself that all types of sunrise have their own beauty - but really, some are less beautiful.
Still - the bird chorus is spectacular. I invited an Audubon naturalist friend to come inspect our back fields last week. The ability of practiced birders to spot and identify amazes me. She was impressed with our lot, and may help us lobby to be one of the locations for next year's guided "neighborhood bird walks" in May.
Our oldest daughter just went through a Myers-Briggs type testing session in the context of her work. The test and analysis have so intrigued her that she wants the whole family to take it and is speculating about where they will land on the spectrum. My dear husband was equally caught up in it about 15 years ago, as was my dad. We both took the test back then, and it is pretty compelling. It was interesting to reopen the book and read about it again after years have passed.
One thing to note is my reaction to my "results" at age 50 vs age 35. Today I find it far more instructive and accurate. At 35, I was resistant to labels, constantly in search of exceptions to the categorizations of my personality. To me, my calmer outlook today is an indication of being more comfortable in my skin, and more aware of who I am. I think I spent years trying to figure out what I was like, what kind of person I was.
Once, on an application form for choosing a summer au pair from overseas, I was asked to describe not only our family, but myself. "What kind of person are you? Describe your personal style. How do you relate to people?" I fretted over that question for days. "What am I like?!" I appealed to my husband; "What's my personal style?!"
Today I'm still making discoveries. I think one of the most important life tasks is never to close yourself to changing your ways. Overall, however, I'm less worried about it. Aging definitely has its advantages.
Another offshoot of the personality typing conversation was compatibility. Obviously, there are certain "types" that get along with each other better than others. J has been fascinated by the concept of matchmaking websites recently (should I be worried?). They are advertised more and more on TV, and are clearly quite popular. It is kind of tantalizing to think of people out there who may be superbly compatible with you. Are there websites that just help you find friends? Wouldn't it be kind of cool to see who they find for you? Although one might see type-testing as little more than reading the horoscopes, tests like the Myers-Briggs are far more sophisticated. I suspect that the successful matchmaking sites use something very similar.
I guess since we spend less and less time in shared activity with other people, we don't have the same opportunities to observe them in life. We are bound to our computers, lingering indoors, enslaved by the telecommunication world even when we are out in the open. Those people we might have met, observed, converse with in our moments out in the world are often erased by the other people in our ears. So the computer may be a much better way to assess who is our "type" and help us find them. Scary, but perhaps true.
There are little lakes in our April field where no lakes should be, but they won't last. It is a healthy, thirst-quenched field nearing the end of Maine's infamous mud-season - a particularly chilly one. We are still building fires to take off the chill almost every day.
It wasn't too long ago that this stone marker was entirely buried in snow.
Crocuses are up. I have seen some forsythia pushing its insistent yellow into the frosty air. A mallard pair and a a pair of mergansers have both spent time on our pond, so we are hopeful for baby ducks once again. The greening is slowly beginning. This is my type of weather.
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